The Lost Heaven
by Southpark
Summary: Post movie and OVA, Ed and Al went to live in the real world without their alchemist ability till year 2005. It was the end of the story after their lives ended in the real world, or wasn't it? FMA Anime x FMA Manga x FMA Games characters & Spoilers
1. Life in Real World

**Title:** The Lost Heaven

**Anime:** FMA (character-Azmaria is borrowed from Chrono Crusade in chapter 1 only)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist and Chrono Crusade, so pls don't sue me!

**Pairing:** Ed/Al brotherly love

**Summary:** Post movie and OVA, Ed and Al went to live in the real world without their alchemist ability till year 2005. It was the end of the story after their lives ended in the real world, or wasn't it? Inspired after FMA OVA. **Will continue if there are reviews.**

**Background theme:** Brothers

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**Chapter 01: Life in Real World**

_Year 2005... Tokyo Japan_

The leaves rustled in the cool autumn wind as a 100 year old man sat besides his balcony, looking at the photo of a younger, yet taller man standing next to his shorter elder brother. Edward Elric sighed deeply. Alphonse Elric had been admitted to the hospital a month ago due to heart stroke and his wife-Azmaria Hendric had went to accompany him. Edward had insisted on going but his automail leg was no longer as agile as in the past. Many problems had begun their demonstrations by emitting pains on his joints whenever the weather changed. Azmaria promised to call him if Al's illness became serious.

"We've finally found our way here!" Shouts of children entered his ears as he looked up. "A gift from grandpa Al... Errr.. nope, great-grandpa Al!" The children chanted and gathered around Edward, pulling their bags to him while the elder boy started bickering with the little girl again. Edward Elric smiled. The three children reminded him so much of himself, his younger brother-Alphonse Elric and his childhood friend-Winry Rockbell.

"Remember the fighting scene in the movie-Conqueror of Shamballa? I wish I can use alchemy!" The elder boy resembling younger version of Edward Elric told his younger brother.

"I like the fire alchemy, it's so impressive!" The younger boy resembling younger version of Alphonse Elric chipped and turned to Edward: "Have you watched the movie before, great grand pa Ed? It's great! I wonder how life is going to be like if we can all use alchemy. It must be pretty convenient because we can fix things simply by a clap of hands!"

"I don't think so, learning alchemy can bring loads of troubles, it's better if you don't know anything about alchemy at all, children." Edward gave a toothless sigh and looked out of the window, thinking of his long ago past.

_82 years ago_

On a fateful day, 13-year-old Alphonse Elric and 18-year-old Edward Elric went through the Gate of transmutation and ended up in the other world on the other side of the gate. Shortly after that, they destroyed the Gate and left the place with Noah. They rented an apartment in Berlin. Edward couldn't forget Al's joy and surprise to see their new home where they would live together.

After the funeral of Alphonse Heiderich, they formally lived in the apartment and made new friends who resembled Scar and Lust. It was confusing for many people to accept Alphonse Elric in the beginning because he resembled Alphonse Heiderich so much after he cut his hair short, but they eventually got used to it. Life without alchemy was hard and coupled with the Great Depression, the Elric brothers had to start everything from scratch. As time flew, Alphonse grew taller. To Edward's annoyance, he remained short as ever.

The Elric brothers' reunion did not last more than 5 years. Deeply curious with the other world, Al went deeply into his research on world history and travelled widely to several countries for his studies while Ed kept himself busy by concentrating in movie production with Fritz Lang. Throughout the time, Ed and Al kept in touch via mails. One day, Al told him that he was going to be married with an American girl-Azmaria Hendric and invited him to attend their wedding in New York.

There was a dull gloominess deep within Ed and he wrote to reject the invitation with an excuse that he was too busy. It seemed that Al had outgrown his dependence on his elder brother's company which saddened Ed whenever he was lying on bed wide awake in the dead of night.

_A flash of time... World War II... Germany.._

Due to his stubborn attitude, Fritz Lang refused to leave the country during the early sign for the start of war and paid deeply for the consequence when he was arrested and sent to the concentration camp. Equally stubborn, Ed hid a rifle and sneaked into the camp to rescue Fritz. As a result, he was locked up. From words of mouth, he learnt that Fritz Lang was killed before he had broke into the camp.

Two days before his execution, Al suddenly turned up at the cell with a frown. Despite his anxiety, Ed was amazed how tall Al was when he stood in front of his elder brother. At his age of 30, Al appeared as tall as their late father-Hohenheim.

"You are still as hot blooded as ever, nii-san." Al said with disapproval and passed some clothes to Ed: "Let's get out."

"Hey, wait, where are we going?" Ed questioned.

"Going out for some fresh air. I've my own way of doing things." Al said and pulled Ed outside the building. He took a bag of things and pulled Ed into a dark corner where there was a corpse lying on the ground with a few corpses in Nazi uniforms.

"Al!" Ed exclaimed, but was hushed by Al. He made Ed changed his clothes and tossed the prisoner clothes over the corpse. Al looked at the corpse, pulled his eyes away and went after Ed.

"Let's go." Al said softly. In the safety of the boat, Al suddenly whispered: "I don't like it, nii-san. Why do people kill one another just because they have different hair or skin colour? Why must people resort to conspiracy to destroy even to people closest to them?"

"Al, did you kill…" Al nodded numbly before Ed completed his sentence. He could see exhaustion deep in Al's eyes.

"That person was my ex-colleague when I was doing odd jobs shortly after we came to this world. He tried to sell me off to the concentration camp when I told him that I wanted to get you out of the prison. I killed him together with some Nazi soldiers."

"They are over there! Don't let them escape!" Some Nazi soldiers had reached the bank and started firing at the Elric brothers.

"Nii-san! Let me deal with them!" Al whispered, picked a rifle and pulled Ed behind him.

"Wait, Al…"

"Sorry, I'm taller than you, so I have a better advantage to aim the soldiers." Al lied, knowing Ed had better chance to escape death if he took cover behind the taller brother. Al suddenly hissed in pain. A bullet had cut into Al's chest.

"AL!!!!!" Ed shouted and clasped his younger brother to the ground of the sailing boat: "Don't die on me, Al! Damnit, I hate being short! Why can't I protect my younger brother?"

Al grinned and clasped his wound in pain. Ed had thought they were going to die, but they made it through the escape and reached U.S.A through several channels.

_Year 1950..._

Ed, Al and his wife migrated to Japan. Ed continued his career as movie producer and became famous. Al and Azmaria concentrated on their researches. Remembering their past, Al was especially interested in Geometry and anything that was connected to alchemy. Ed made a movie based on his last return to Amestris, named 'Conqueror of Shamballa'. Al had invited Ed to live with him and Azmaria, but he rejected. Through out the years, Al paid regular visits to Ed until his health deteriorated.

_Present time_

"Great-grandpa, are you listening to what we are saying?" The little girl resembling Winry pouted.

"Yes, yes, sorry, my mind was drifting away again." Ed smiled. He wondered how was Winry doing now….. her life without him and Al around her. She was probably married with many grand children by now. Somehow, he felt guilty for leaving her like that. But he had to do that to ensure no one could get through the transmutation gate. In this way, their world would be protected from the other world's invaders. He could not imagine what would happen if more of the Nazi soldiers made their way into Amestris.

A ring suddenly interrupted his thought.

"I'll go and get the phone!" The Ed-like boy jumped and took the receiver: "Hello, Elric residence!"

"Go and get your great grandpa Ed, it's **URGENT**!" Ed could identify Azmaria's panicking voice from the other side of the phone.

He stumbled to the phone and grabbed the receiver.

"Al's condition is deteriorating, doctor says that he might not be able to survive tonight!" Azmaria sobbed: "He wants to see you now."

The receiver fell onto the ground. Without a second thought, Ed grabbed his coat and walking stick and rushed out of the house with the three children.

_Please don't let him die, please don't let him die yet, I've too many things to talk to you, Al! _Ed silently prayed to any nameless gods he could think of as the cab took him and the kids to the hospital.

In the ICU, Al was gasping breathlessly under the oxygen mask.

"AL!!!!!!" Ed panted as he rushed to his younger brother's side: "Can you talk?"

"Nii-san…….," Al whispered and his wrinkled face broke into a boyish smile that Ed was used to: "Nice…. to see you drop by…. again."

"Al, damnit, don't you dare to leave me behind just because I did that to you more than 80 years ago!" Ed roared, ignoring the disapproved looks from the nearby nurses.

"We're even….. 70 years ago when I left….. you behind for my further study, remember….?" Al whispered with a brief pause each time for more air: "I was….. hoping that you can…… forgive me for that."

"Nah, you've saved my life during the war, we're quit." Ed grinned, feeling wet hotness threatening to leak out from his eyes.

"So…. glad to hear…… that, will you blame…… me for breaking my promise…….. to be with you forever…..?" Al struggled with his breath.

Ed took Al's veined hand and their fingers entwined tightly: "Not at all, little brother, not at all."

"Arigato…… and……… gomene sai……., nii-san……..." Al smiled peacefully and closed his eyes. His grip loosened.

Ed buried his face on Al's chest to muffle his cries as the nurses pulled the blanket over Al's head... In his mind eyes, Ed saw his 11-year-old-self doing alchemy practice with the 10-year-old Al.

_Thank you for everything, nii-san..._ Al's voice seemed to echo in Ed's ears.

**Owari**


	2. Rewrite

Title: The Lost Heaven

Disclaimer: I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist , so pls don't sue me!

Warning: **SPOILERS **from manga/anime/game walkthrough. Slight yaoi at the end. Rating will go up.

Pairing in chap 2: Ed/Al brotherly love, Archer/Al, possible Ed/Winry

Summary: Post movie and OVA, Ed and Al went to live in the real world without their alchemist ability till year 2006. It was the end of the story after their lives ended in the real world, or wasn't it? Inspired after FMA OVA. **Will update if there are reviews.

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**

To richard9311: Arigato, glad u like it..

To Pour Thy Mind: Actually I've finished planning the entire fanfic, I'm hoping to rush them as soon as possible while I still have the mood on this fic… Glad u like it, arigato..

To claudius: I should have done more homework before I do up this part, luckily, I indicate 'words of mouth' so this chap is not totally inaccurate as there could be untrue rumors about certain people's circumstances. Glad u like my fic..

To shaolin feilong: Heehee.. 95 years old should be old enough to die, and I guess Al should be happy, dying in a natural way…:p

To LeandroGarel : Arigato, I think it should be normal that they die in the normal way since they are 100 humans and it sounds natural that way. I'm going to read up ur fic later too. Hope u'll enjoy this chapter.

To Twilight-Cullen: Arigato, glad u like my fic, I was also close to tears when I wrote this chap, the subsequent chapters will not be that angst but more adventure packed, hope u won't mind..:p

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**Chapter02: REWRITE**

There was brightness everywhere, so glaring that Al could hardly open his eyes. Slowly, his eyes grew accustomed to the light around him and he began to make out chunks of what looked like the remains of a gate that resembled horribly that of the Gate of Transmutation. He felt himself landing on the ground.

"Hey, fancy seeing you again! You know, I kind of miss you since you got back your body some years ago. This is the first time we can communicate together since your body and soul have joined together." A strangely familiar voice called behind Al. He turned to see a shiny person who was so bright that Al could not see his face at all, except his creepy grin.

"Who are you? Have you seen me before?" Al asked.

"How heartless, you were staying with me for the whole 4 years within the gate and now you can't remember me!" The shiny person sniffed: "Anyway, the situation is, you and your elder bro had blasted this place. Do you both have any idea what kind of trouble you have caused to your own world??"

Al protested: "We've been trying to seal our world from the other world, what's wrong..." He paused, remembering the chucks of gate debris and several gate missing parts.

"Oh ho, now then you notice. Maybe I'll give you a bit of background information of what has happened. Instead of cutting off the ties between the worlds, the entire gate was blown up from the world you went to and its pieces had fallen onto the world where you came from! And if you think the wormhole between the two worlds are cut off, then you are terribly wrong. Don't stare at me like that, kid!"

"Don't call a 95 year old man a kid, mister!' Al protested and stopped short to see his hands smooth as a child's: "What-the?"

"Maybe you'll like to change your words now." grinned the shiny person: "Thought you'll love it a lot. You must be tired of being a sickly old man at the other side, right? Now here's a good change when you go back to where you belong and sort out whatever destruction you and your brother have caused."

"What have we done? What's wrong with destroying that gate?"

"Little boy," The shiny short person sighed like a weary teacher explaining one plus one equals two to a dumb student: "If you think a black hole can be destroyed with a blast, it'll only make the tunnel bigger, have you any idea what effect the pieces of the extraordinary gate can cause to the beings in your own world? Moreover, the balance of time between the two worlds are now disrupted and there was an intersection of different dimensions." The shiny person snickered at the thought.

Al frowned. From the conversation with this mysterious person, he obviously was happy to see chaos happening all the time. Somehow he reminded Al of Envy.

Al said: "You know, you are very weird. Do you have a name by the way?"

"Oh, some of you called me 'God', you can call me 'Truth' if you like."

"Is there anything I can do, Mr Truth?" Al asked.

"Of course, you can, little boy. You can do it by... blah, blah, blah.." Truth's lips moved. Al's eyes widened.

"And so, only you can do that." Truth concluded.

"Sorry, I can't catch your words earlier, can you repeat it again?" Al asked.

But Truth did not seem to hear Al's request, instead he grinned: "Enough say, I'll let you continue your way back! There'll be many interesting changes waiting for you! Hope we won't meet again!"

"No, WAITTT!! You haven't told me the way to revert my world back to normal yet!!!!" Al screamed as bright light glared before him and the shiny person was out of his sight.

The flash of light started to burn before Al. He put up a hand to shield his face and got to his feet. He was in the middle of the Great Desert.

"Stupid 'Truth', of all places, why must he send me to a desert?" Al complained.

"Gosh, this is hot, how did I land here?" A familiar voice groaned near him.

"Officer Hughes! I'm surprised to see you here!" Al cried out in surprise, wondering inwardly why a person from the other world was sent to his world.

"Officer? I'm a Lieutenant Colonel, for your information and for the last time I can recall. Hey, do I know you? You sound very familiar!"

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes...?" Al scratched his head: "I think I used to meet you before many years ago when I was an armor..."

Hughes reached forward, almost touching Al's nose with his: "Hey, you look like Edward Elric. Don't tell me you are his younger brother-Alphonse Elric. As far as I remember, you are supposed to be an empty armor. Can I presume your brother has managed to return your body back to normal?"

Al's grin instantly turned into a frown and walked away: "The effect of heat must be too much for me, I'm actually talking to someone who's supposed to be dead."

Hughes ran after him: "That's my question too, the last time I remember, I was killed by a homunculus in disguise of my wife and the next moment, I ended up here! YOU MUST BELIEVE ME!!"

"Yah, yah, I understand, I know." Al quickly said, having been shaken by Hughes like a ragged doll. Inwardly, he wondered why Hughes appeared so tall from his point of view. He was like, at least a head taller than Al who was usually proud of his height whenever he met other people in several occasions.

Al pondered to himself and collapsed on the hot sand, feeling exhausted. He changed the topic: "I miss my wife-Azmaria, my 6 children, my 8 grandchildren and my 3 kawaii great grand children and most of all, nii-san. I wonder how are they now."

Puzzled, Hughes examined Al: "You don't look more than 14 years old, Alphonse, how did you managed to have a child?"

"I'm a 95 years old man in the other world before I died... Wait, I look less than 14 years old, did you said??" Al groaned.

"Around 12-13 years old to be precise, blond hair with ponytail, red hooded coat..." Hughes elaborated.

_Wasn't that how I had looked before I went to the other world? What's going on here?_ Al thought.

* * *

Roy Mustang could not understand it. He had followed Edward Elric's plan closely to destroy the Gate of Transmutation the moment he and Alphonse Elric went over to the other side on a rocket. He was expecting to see the dark opening vanishing, revealing a clear blue sky as what many happy endings were supposed to happen whenever the worst was over. Instead, firy sparks flew from the opening all over the sky like burning sparks from burning city turning the colour above into blood red before regaining back to normal with the hole gone. In an instance, Roy felt something bad about it, but he could not put his finger to what exactly went wrong.

"Is there anything wrong, Colonel?" Riza asked behind him.

"I'm no longer a colonel, First Lieutenant." Roy sighed.

Riza smiled: "An instruction and letter from the top earlier, Sire, you are restored back to Colonel." She handed him the authority letter.

Roy Mustang could not believe his luck. Just when he started to go back to his usual work with the same subordinates under him, the first problem started to pour into the headquarter.

Within a week after the attack from the other world, there were signs of strangely transmuted chimeras attacking people. Several times, Roy and Armstrong had to dispatch their men to fight the creatures. Another bad news reached the military, there was rumors that the nation of Drachma which was in the North of Amestris was developing weapons to attack Amestris anytime. The chimeras were rumored to be products from Drachma and country of Xing as they were sometimes sighted coming from the Great Dessert. People in Amestris were mysteriously disappearing almost everyday.

* * *

"There is a few more coming towards our border." Armstrong reported as he sighted a few combinations of elephant/scorpion creatures moving towards their station. He cracked his muscles.

Suddenly, there was a huge typhoon, rolling all the creatures into the air and slumping them further away.

'This alchemy...' Armstrong thought and sure enough, he heard a familiar voice talking probably to someone besides him: "See, I've regained my alchemy ability! There's some people over there. We can seek for their help ..."

"I want to see my beloved Elysia again!" sniffed the second familiar voice.

"Are my eyes deceiving me?" Armstrong gasped in disbelief as he saw a supposedly-dead Hughes and the supposedly-disappeared-to-the-other-world Alphonse walking towards them.

"Armstrong-san?" Al's eyes almost budged out: "You're still around after so many years?"

"It's been barely a week since you've left, Alphonse. Have you finally remember me?" Armstrong smiled and turned to stare hard at Hughes.

"Hello, long time no see, I know it sounds crazy, but it seems that I've come back to life. Al has told me everything." Hughes scratched his head and laughed uneasily.

"You... you... you..." Armstrong burst into tears and hugged Hughes like a bear: "We all MISS YOU!!!!"

Hughes choked in his grip: "Arghh, same here, same here, let me have a breath, won't you?"

"Barely a week since I left? What's going on here?" Al put his hand to his chin and pondered deeply: "And Lt Hughes coming back to life? Does it mean that the time here has slown down compared to the other world and the dead have come back to life? Maybe..." His eyes shone: "Maybe I can see Mother again!" Al turned to tag at Armstrong: "Take us back to Amestris, please, my mother might have come back to life!"

"Hmm? All right." Armstrong nodded. A voice suddenly interrupted him behind: "Sire, what are we going to do with those dead chimeras? Send them for examination as usual?"

It was a 20 plus years old female state alchemist. She turned to look at Al: "I say, aren't you Edward? You look so different since the last time we met."

"I'm Alphonse Elric." Al said wearily. When did his nii-san get to know so many girls behind his back?

"Al? It's me! Cony! Do you remember me? We used to work together in a mission with Ed together!" The girl-Cony pointed at herself excitedly: "I remembered you were an armor that time!"

"Hm? Sorry, but I really can't remember who you are." Al replied delicately, searching his brain for anyone resembled her, but failed.

"I'm Corniche R. Royce! I can't believe you've forgotten about me! We've met four years ago and you both had helped me to become a state alchemist!" Cony retorted in disbelief.

"I've some accident when I got back my body, I might have lost some memory about you, I'm so sorry." Al lied, knowing fully well that his 4 year memory with Ed had been restored after he went to other world. 'Maybe I still have some scattered memories, I do not know.' Al thought uneasily.

Cony's frustrated face relaxed: "Oh... Hey wait, do you wish to become a state alchemist too? We're no longer fighting civilians. The military needs plenty of state alchemist right now."

"OK, let me think about it." Al said carelessly and he caught Armstrong's disappointed look: "Oh, I will really SERIOUSLY think about it, I promise."

Armstrong broke into a smile. Besides him, Al had a strange feeling that he was like... turned into a character within a children fairytale storybook which he used to read to his grandchildren at night. Just like some characters in the story, he had reverted back to his younger self after he returned to his own world from other world where he aged and died. Somehow, this so-called 'bedtime story' seemed to have gone horribly wrong.

Secretly, Al took note the 3 main strange circumstances:

1) Dead people came back to life

2) The time had stopped or slows down after he left for the other world

3) There were some people/events that he had completely no collection at all (He would confirm with other people again later).

* * *

Winry thought her head was going to be exploded with so many sudden incidents. The day the Elric brothers left her to the other world, she had promised herself not to wait for them anymore. The next day, Izumi and Wrath turned up at her door step. Initially, she thought there was some mistakes until she went to Izumi's tomb to find it had disappeared as though it did not exist in the first place. Three days later, Al and the supposed-dead Hughes turned up at her doorstep. Hughes was hugging his daughter almost everywhere except his office where he was reaccepted as part of the military. Much to Izumi's disapproval, Al went for the state alchemist examination and joined the military. Al was given a title-Soul Alchemist and was put under Roy's team.

"Your father is the Fuhrer?" Al asked in awe and Armstrong nodded while they were walking along the corridor.

"I'm very proud of him. I know he can do it and will be better than the previous one." Armstrong sniffed with more sparkles in his eyes.

"Soul Alchemist," Roy called as Al entered the department: "We have a mission now."

* * *

_In a ruined city within Amestris_

"Is this heaven or hell, why does it look so familiar to me?" Edward Elric pondered when he found himself lying among the ruins of an unknown city.

_Flashback 2006 in Tokyo, Winter _

The doctors shook their heads as they examined Edward Elric's heartbeat: "His depression has worsened his condition. You have to prepare for the worst, Mdm."

"First, Al and now Ed, Ed must be thinking of joining my husband in his after life." Ed heard Azmaria sobbed as he laid motionlessly on his sick bed. But he did not care.

In his mind eyes, he saw the younger Al smiling and waving at him.

_Maybe I'll be seeing you soon, Al. Wait for me._

That night, Ed passed away peacefully. Shortly after darkness descended him, his eyes were met by flashes of light and he ended up on an isolated street in his 18 year old body.

_Back to current circumstance_

"Fullmetal, I can't imagine seeing you here again." An unpleasant sneer suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"Archer? I can't believe I'm seeing you under this circumstance too." Ed turned to glare at the person whom he detested behind him.

There was low rumbling on the nearby buildings. Frank Archer looked up: "Looks like we have some company." Around 10 or more wolves with strangely deformed human-like faces growled and saliva dripped from their gapping mouths.

"So this is how Hell looks like, huh? I'm simply amused. Should have put them in my movie scripts." Ed said sarcastically.

"Damn those humans, they are messing up our rights to survive!" The leader of the wolf chimeras growled and leaped at them.

Ed automatically clapped his hands together and sent shooting rocks to slump at them.

"Looks like my fire is not put to use, Fullmetal. Welcome back." The familiar voice of Roy Mustang said as he merged from a dark corner: "Your brother was back 2 days ago, for your information."

"Al is here?" Ed echoed: "Hey, wait, what the hell is going on here? One moment I was dying of old age in bed and the next moment, I'm performing alchemy in a ruined city? And I'm seeing dead people talking to me?"

"You are still as short as usual, Fullmetal." Roy said loudly, ignoring Ed's cries of "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT???!!!!" "Maybe you can check with Soul Alchemist, I mean Alphonse, later." Roy finished.

"Al has joined the military?" Ed asked after a while.

"Yes, but I lost sight of him. This is his first mission, I'm hoping he's not getting himself into a fix." Roy said and turned to meet some bewildered officers who saw Archer and Ed.

Al had lost sight of Roy whom he had been following closely when some chimeras got into his way and he swept them off in his wind. Along the way, he could hear moans and cries of victims who had been attacked by the chimeras as he walked along the debris. Cony was dispatched to heal the injured, but like Roy, she seemed to have disappeared somewhere else within a short time. Al sighed and tried to help any victims out of the destruction whenever possible.

Just then, he heard some growls and looked to see more wolf chimeras leaping down to attack the victims. Al clapped his hands, extending a piece of the ground and hit the attackers. Some ran off, but more came, lured by the blood of the victims and the lack of soldiers in the area. Al transmuted a stone pole out of the ground and hit them away from the injured people, but they kept advancing.

"Why can't those chimeras just go away? If only I'm still in my armor form, but there's no armor around!" Al grunted and hissed in pain as one chimera closed his jaws over Al's shoulder. Burden by the weight, Al fell off onto the ground. More chimeras sneered and jumped at him. Al clapped and slapped his palms onto the ground. Bright lines zip-zapped from his hands to the monsters. The thirsty gleam in their eyes disappeared and they collapsed onto the ground, dead.

"What..." Al panted: "Kind of alchemy is this?" He walked up to the corpses and examined them. No wounds, no injury, just dead as dolls.

"Soul elimination or soul absorption, I presume, State alchemist." A deep familiar voice said.

"I think so too, this is the first time I've ever seen that." A feminine familiar voice replied.

Al turned to see the familiar form of Scar and Lust standing behind him, watching him with interest. Somehow, Al found Lust looked a bit different, but he could not identity what it was.

"You are alive too, Scar-san." Al said numbly.

"Who are you?" Scar's face remained cold.

"Alphonse Elric." Al said: "Ed's younger brother, we have met before."

"ALLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ed called from afar.

Scar took a look and together with Lust, they disappeared into a dark alley.

"NII-SAN!" Al called and ran to his elder brother. Ed suddenly threw his arms around Al and pulled him into a tight embrace before Al could hug him. "Nii-san?" Al asked uncertainly.

"I finally see you again, Al. I can hardly imagine life without you for a year since your death." Ed choked.

"A year? A year had passed over the other side since my death?" Al repeated. Ed nodded.

"How are my kids, wife, grandchildren and my great grandchildren? Are they doing fine?" Al asked.

"They're ok, your wife was a very strong willed woman and she lived well as usual. She recovered the fact of your death within half a year." Ed said and he pulled Al back

His grin suddenly widened with satisfaction. "What?" Al asked and immediately knew the reason. Ed was slightly taller than Al as Al had reverted to his 13-year-old self. Ed used to complain how tall Al had grown whenever Al visited him in the other world.

Al sighed: "Looks like we are back to our old times."

* * *

Ed could not remember how he survived the day when Winry cried and hugged him when he entered the door behind Al. Izumi pulled a long face when Ed mentioned Al's joining of the military. He was caught unaware when she suddenly pulled them both into a motherly hug. Wrath appeared oddly different. After some observation, Ed noticed that Wrath was having proper limbs (including Ed's one leg and arm) again. Late in the night, Al explained the situation of the world after his death, based on words from 'Truth'.

"What else did that 'Truth' guy told you?" Ed asked: "I remember he's a bit funny when I first met him..."

"You've met him before, nii-san?" Al gasped.

"Yeah, I met him twice whenever I performed human transmutation." Ed put his arms behind his head and thought of the far away past.

"Err... Then do you know Cony before we went to the other world?"

"Sure I do, we helped her to find her missing elder brother in a mission to investigate the running chimeras matter with Colonel Roy, Lt Hawkeye and Armstrong, remember? Al, you look a bit funny."

Al covered himself in blanket: "N..nothing, I think I'm feeling sleepy." He completely forgot to tell Ed about the revival of Scar and Lust.

"Oh, ok, night." Ed turned to sleep.

Behind the door, Winry smiled tenderly at the brothers' sleeping form, she whispered: "Welcome home, Ed."

* * *

With the return of Archer and Hughes, there was a reshuffle of manpower in the military. Cony was placed under Armstrong, Ed under Roy and much to Ed's fury, Al was put under Archer's command. He did not like the way the man glanced at his younger brother.

"If you dare to bully my younger brother," Ed hissed at Archer when he passed the Lt Colonel along the corridor: "You'll have ME to answer to."

"Is this a threat to a superior, Fullmetal?" Archer grinned darkly and continued his way without a backward glance.

* * *

"So what's your conclusion, Colonel?" Lt Hawkeye asked.

Roy scratched his chin: "It seems that there's a drastic change after the collapse of the gate. Looks like the destruction of the gate brings the dead to life and our time in our world has slow down compared to other world where Fullmetal came from. I'm afraid things are not going to be as easy as they look, First Lt."

Lt Hawkeye gave him a questioning look.

"'That person' could be back by now." Roy said: "I'm afraid this is only the beginning of the disaster."

"Hi, guys!" Hughes suddenly interrupted as he swept into the room.

Roy said quickly: "If it's anything about your daughter, give my ears a break. I've been hearing your daughter's compliments almost every hour ever since your return."

"No, it's something else." Hughes said seriously.

* * *

Al was carrying a stack of reports to his assigned department when Archer blocked his path.

"Yes, sir?" Al looked up at the stern face.

"Follow me." Archer said shortly and led Al along another corridor that was more deserted. Al sensed something amiss when he saw that there was no one inside and turned to walk out, but the door was closed. Archer snickered at him and pinned him to the door.

"Is there anything, sir?" Al forced himself to stay calm, scolding himself for the slight shiver in his voice: _'It's not as if he is going to eat me up, he's just my superior, what's the problem with me? Besides, I have 95 years worth of life experience, what else have I not face before compared to him?'_

Archer snickered, reached forward and started attacking Al's lips with a harsh kiss. Al froze; his grip on the files loosened and the documents fell onto the floor with loud thump.

* * *

**TBC**

* * *

**NOTE:**

Corniche R. Royce-a character from FMA Gameboy 'Stray Rondo'

'Truth'-a character from FMA manga

Frank Archer-a character from FMA anime

* * *

**AUTHOR NOTE:** This chapter might be more disappointing due to its lack of angst as compared to the previous chapter and it is not as touching. Some parts might remind you of Inuyasha and some other animes, but I just can't help it due to how the chapters go.

The part about Ed and Truth's meeting was in FMA manga #13 and after he & Al attempted to resurrect Trisha Elric in the manga version. The mission about meeting Corniche was taken from a game walkthrough in FMA Gameboy 'Stray Rondo'. There'll be more characters crossover from FMA anime, FMA manga and FMA game. I was pretty confused with all the differences in the contents between manga and anime.


	3. Kidnapped

Title: The Lost Heaven

Disclaimer: I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga/games, so pls don't sue me!

Summary: Post movie and OVA, Ed and Al went to live in the real world without their alchemist ability till year 2005. It was the end of the story after their lives ended in the real world, or wasn't it? Inspired after FMA OVA. **Not continuing unless there are reviews.**

WARNING: FMA anime, manga & game spoilers.. and Yaoi! Rating will go up.

Pairing: Ed/Al brotherly love, Archer x Al (one way), Ed/Winry

AU: I've made up some facts in the story, because (1) I'm too thick to understand all the logics in the manga and anime and (2) the manga is still ongoing. You may also refer to Wikipedia for further info of the characters I've added in this fanfic. I don't invent them for they are properties under FMA manga and games. I'm pretty confused with the ranks, etc in the military. Might need to amend this chapter in future if necessary… Sigh…

* * *

To Grislam: heehee (evil laugh) Archer's not going to comply ur request, ..:p

ToPour Thy Mind: glad u like it, there'll be more things they are going to face.

* * *

**Chapter 03: Kidnapped**

In a dark hall, a white hair old lady rose from the ground to reveal the wiltered face of Dante. Shakingly, she examined her vined hands and her eyes hardened.

"I'll need your help to do something for me, since I've summoned you from the other dimension." She said to a group of people standing in the darkness behind her.

A few distance away, a lady with brown hair was bound to the wall in semi-darkness, she whimpered inwardly as the old lady approached her with a warm smile which did not reflect her true emotion.

"Be proud that I'm giving your body such high importance..." Dante said and suddenly smiled darkly: "..., Trisha Elric."

* * *

"Did you see Al around?" Ed asked any officer he met on his way to the department Al was assigned to. He had a bad feeling about it. At an isolated corridor, he saw Al rushed out of a door and slammed the door tightly behind him.

"Al, are you alright? Did that man do anything to you?" Ed ran up to his younger brother. Al was sweating profusely and forced an uneasy smile.

"Nothing, I'm alright, I'm hungry, let's go for lunch." Al said quickly and pulled Ed towards the canteen.

"Al, are you really sure you are ok? You look pale." Ed repeated. Al nodded his head and smiled anxiously as he left the door.

Inside the room, Archer laid unconscious with thumps on his head where Al hit him using the files lying on the floor when the man attempted to advance further onto Al.

"Hi, Ed!" A feminine voice called. Ed looked up with a surprise. Al followed his glance and saw a short hair girl walking with Armstrong.

"I'm joining as a state alchemist from today onwards," She said before Armstrong could start the introduction. Armstrong coughed.

"Sophie will be joining you under Colonel Mustang's team." Armstrong said.

"It's nice to see you again, Sophie!" Ed said happily.

"Nii-san," Al pulled Ed to him:"How many girls have you known behind my back?"

"But, but," Ed protested: "You know her too, Al! She was involved in an incident with us during our 4 years journey, remember?"

"And you are... Al?" Sophie asked:"I remembered you were an empty armor the last time we met many years ago."

"Err.. Hi, nice to meet you." Al smiled, feeling uneasiness growing inside him, threatening to graw out of his stomach. _What's going on here?_

"Are you interested to visit us after work? We're staying in Winry's house since she is renting one in the Central. She'll be pleased to see you." Ed suggested.

"Sure!" Sophie smiled.

Archer was subsequently out of the room and to Al's relief, he did not mention anything about what was going on inside the room. But Al felt a chill everytime he turned to give a strange kind of creepy look whenever their eyes met.

That night, Sophie went to Winry's house where the Elric brothers, Izumi, her husband and Wrath were staying for dinner. Winry appeared happy to see Sophie, but Al observed that she seemed down whenever no one was noticing and Ed was chatting happily with Sophie.

"Nii-san, this is unfair to Winry." Al whispered after Sophie returned back to her dormitory in the headquarter: "Winry has been waiting for you during the last two years here when you were in the other world. You should show more concerns for her."

"Al, can you cut it out? You've been harping on this topic for more than 10 mins." Ed sulked.

There was a knock on the door. Al sighed and went to open the door.

"Ed?" A girl with shoulder length pink hair asked at the door step.

"Armony?" Ed's eyes widened behind Al.

"Hm, please take a seat inside, I'm going back to my room." Al forced a smile and walked off only to be pulled back by Ed.

"Al, you don't remember Armony? She was..."

"In a mission with us during our 4 years journey? Sorry, I have no recollection at all." Al fumed and turned to Ed and Armony: "I'm not angry with anyone, I'm just pissed with my poor memory." He pulled Ed's hands away and went straight to the room. When he passed by Winry's room, he saw it tightly shut. She had went to sleep early unlike the usual times.

"Armony's staying with us?" Izumi echoed as Ed announced. Winry forced a smile: "That's great, the more people, the merrier. I was afraid this place is too quiet."

"I'm glad to know you're agreeable to it, Winry, you're always so understanding." Ed laughed.

"Thank-you-so-much-for-your-compliment, Ed!" Winry slapped Ed's back unusually hard until his head slammed into the ground.

"Oh my, did I cause a disruption here?" Armony asked.

"They are always like that, don't mind them." Al quickly added.

"Ed has told me that you've regained your physical body, congratulation, Al!" Armony smiled.

"And nii-san told me you've returned from dead. Congratulation too, Armony-chan." Al said, trying to keep a straight face. He turned to look at Wrath who had been very quiet since his return and said: "Are you alright, Wrath? You've been quiet for days."

Wrath gave him a haunting look and said: "Don't mind me, I'm absolutely alright."

* * *

The next day, the Elric brothers arrived the Headquarter with a surprise. Archer and Roy's teams were given a mission to attack Drachma-the country in the North of Amestris. Informers had delivered confirmation that people of Amestris were indeed kidnapped to the Northern country. Despite several negotiation between the heads of the two countries, the president of Drachma refused to comply, accusing Amestris for abducting his people at the same time.

"Meaning the Peace Pact between Amestris and Drachma is broken and we are now going to attack Drachma?" Ed cried in disbelief. Falman nodded.

"We better get ourselves prepared, our mission will start in 2 days' time." Riza said: "Fullmetal, you and Alphonse will be involved."

"And Al too? He's still new in the military!" retorted the bewildered Ed.

"Well, he's good in battle and we cannot deny that." Roy said, looking straight into Ed's eyes.

Ed tightened his fist.

In the other department, Al received the similar news from Archer. Al kept quiet.

"Is there any more question, Soul Alchemist?" Archer asked.

"No, Sire." Al replied.

"You are not allowed to run across to the other camp as and when you like it as though it's your personal playground, we are now at war. Is that understood?" Archer said.

"Yes, sire." Al replied dully.

"I can't hear you, Soul Alchemist."

"YES, SIRE!" Al shouted.

"If you have any problem, Alphonse, you are always welcome to approach me." Archer smiled darkly at the boy and walked to his table.

Al frowned inwardly.

Ever since his unsuccessful attempt, he had stopped harrassing Al, knowing the boy was not as submissive as he appeared. But it did not stop him piling the boy with a lot of paperworks as well as some sarcastic remarks whenever possible.

* * *

"I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT THE MILITARY IS UP TO!!!!!" Ed retorted the moment he stepped into the caferia.

"Though I'm not involved, I can understand how it's like in fierce battle." Sophie sighed.

"Hi, guys, what's the matter? I heard 2 teams are involved in a war." Cony called as she went to Ed and Sophie's table.

"Did you see Al around?" Ed asked automatically.

"No idea, I heard Colonel Archer has bombarded Al with paperworks." Cony shrugged.

"I better go and check on him. For goodness sake, it's lunch hour!" Ed growled and abandoned his meal.

* * *

Al could not understand it. Was it the effect of the coffee on his table or was it due to insufficient sleep the night before? He couldn't help yawning and rubbing his eyes. The table top looked so inviting as though tempting him to rest his head on it.

"Why aren't you going to lunch yet, Alphonse?" A voice asked, seemingly from afar.

"Paperwork to do..." Al yawned softly. He felt himself leaning closer to the table and someone strong was lifting him from his chair...

In a rest room, Al sniffled uncomfortably as Frank Archer laid the boy on a bed and started unbuttoning his shirt. There was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Archer asked.

"Major Armstrong asks for you, Sire." an officer reported outside the room.

Archer turned to look at the sleeping boy on the bed and left the room unwillingly.

A hand reached to push open the window from outside and a tall figure climbed through it.

"I should have known better." sighed Hughes as he carried Al out of the room silently.

"Did anyone... Lt Hughes!" Ed called from the corridor and ran up to him: "What happened to Al?"

"He fell asleep in the office during lunch hour." Hughes said, passing the sleeping boy to his elder brother: "I'll leave him to you."

"Nii-san..." Al muttered sleepily in his elder brother's arms.

* * *

The two days passed like flowing water. As expected, Winry, Armony and Izumi were greatly resentful of the Elric brothers being dispatched to the battle field.

Before the two teams set off, Armstrong pulled Al to one side.

"Yes, Major Armstrong?" Al asked curiously.

"I've heard from Lt Hughes. Watch what you take everyday for your meals, Alphonse." Armstrong said.

"I beg your pardon, Sire?" Al stared.

"That's all I can advise you, younger Elric, do not forget that, it's for your own good." Armstrong bluffed: "Or would you like to see how much I've trained my muscles? I..."

"T..there's no need for that, thanks." Al laughed uneasily and ran to join his team. Archer glared at Armstrong and led his army for the journey.

"Good luck, Ed... Al..." Sophie prayed silently as she saw them marching off.

From the comfort of her house, Winry forced herself to concentrate her work to prevent herself from worrying about her childhood friends.

* * *

Strong wind blew and snow flew as the troops travelled via trucks along the wide, mountainous slopes. It had been 3 days on the journey and the soldiers had taken only a few hours of sleep every day in turns. A few times, Ed attempted to make his way to other camp site for his younger brother, but a warning glare from Roy stopped him.

"Is it a crime to visit Al?" Ed hissed as he sat before the fire place in an isolated settlement, which was probably neglected after its iron ores was fully extracted by the ex-occupants.

"We must try not to pick up quarrel during our mission. You know how Archer was like." warned Roy.

Al looked up into the dark cloudy sky. _Looks like there'll be another round of snow storm tonight. Al_ thought. Despite he wore 3 thick layers of clothes, he could not help shivering.

"What's the matter, Soul Alchemist?" Archer called as he made his way around his men to monitor their conditions.

"Nothing, Sire." Al replied quickly. Following Armstrong's instruction, he had never leave his food alone once he was served from common pots. For the past few days, he felt no discomfort, except slight cold due to the unpredictable changes in weather.

Suddenly, there was a warning whistle from the watch guard, followed by a yell of pain and sound of his fall from his watch post. All soldiers got up hastily and grabbed their weapons.

"Damnit!" Roy cursed as he pulled his gloves with transmutation circle over his hands. He did not expect any attack since they were still within Amestris border. Within minutes, he heard battle cries as a large army in white came rushing down to attack the Amestris troops.

"That's not the uniform from Drachma!" Maria Ross gasped as she took up her rifle and took up her position.

"Beats me, but since they are attacking us, we have no choice, but to fight back, don't we?" Havoc said as he shot down some enemies.

At other side, Al transmuted a large typhoon sending the enemies up the sky and crashing them back onto the ground away from their own army while Ed brought up stone walls blocking further advancement from the enemy. Roy shot fires burning the advancing soldiers.

Suddenly, blue forces shot across the ground, turning some of the Amestris soldiers into ice. Several soldiers panicked. Somewhere, fire flew and burnt some Amestris soldiers into ash. Roy was stunned.

"There's probably more than one alchemists in the enemy troop!" Riza roared warningly.

"Thanks for reminding me that, First Lt." Roy said grimly.

"No problem." Riza replied.

"So, this is war, huh?" Ed grinned, turning his automail arm into blade and ran to the front line.

"NII-SAN, WATCH OUT!!" Al cried as someone in white flew across the sky towards the back of Ed. Al transmuted the icy air into air knives and shot Ed's attacker who ducked hastily.

"Wow, Al, you are getting better." Ed gasped.

"Thanks, I'm just getting the hang of it, that's all." Al blushed. He pointed at the escaping attacker: "That person's getting away, he's probably an alchemist or someone else, no one can fly for so long above the ground!"

"We probably can ask something out of that person." grinned Ed and he ran after the person. Al followed.

"Soul Alchemist, you are not supposed to leave the team!" roared Archer, but in the confusion, Al ignored him.

Ed and Al found themselves in an abandoned automail shop. The person seemed trapped.

"Alright, game's over, pal, who are you people?" Ed snarled, revealing his blade.

The person grinned under his white hood. The ground under them suddenly shook and the brothers tripped within thin cracks that zip-zapped along the floor. Another person merged. He was huge like a buffalo with strange horns on his head.

"He... he's..." Ed stammered.

"Who is he, nii-san?" Al asked and shot some air knives which apparently had no effect on their opponent's thick skin at all.

"Cover our noses, first, Godoa, I'm going to release the bomb." A feminine voice said.

"You... you are Eagle Tiffany!" gasped Ed.

"The who?" Al shouted in confusion. Why did Ed know so many people he had completely no idea at all. He wondered how much more memory he had still lost after he went to the other world long ago. Al suddenly choked in the colored air.

"Al...!!" Ed choked and collapsed. Amidst the thinning air, Al clapped his hand and transmuted part of his soul into the nearest armor before he lost his consciousness.

"It's such a trouble to capture these Elric brothers." Tiffany grunted as her companion-Godoa walked towards the unconscious Ed and Al: "What does that woman want with these two brats?"

An armor leg suddenly struck out and kicked Godoa away.

"Why are you after us?" Al's voice spoke through the armor.

"Th..this is impossible!" Tiffany gasped, looking from the armor back to the unconscious Al.

"You'll have to go through me before you can touch us, Miss." Armor!Al said and leaped to pick up Ed. A deeper crack formed on the ground, separating him from his own body: "HEY!" Al protested and was about to jump to rescue his own body when a third person appeared, sending ice at him. By the time, his vision was cleared, Al's physical body was gone and he was left alone with Ed in his arms.

Armor!Al ran out of the house. A man with strange make-ups smiled down at him from above, with Al's physical body in his hands.

"What do you want?!" Armor!Al cried, outraged.

"We've some business with you brothers, but since I've one of you here, I'm going off. We'll meet again shortly, I presume." He laughed in a high pitched voice and vanished in a flash.

Armor!Al stood in silent shock. _I don't believe this, my body's being touched and kidnapped by that girly looking man?_

Just then, Ed stirred in his arms. "Wh..what happen, Al...? WHAT???!!!" Ed screamed as he saw himself held in the arms of an armor.

"Nii-san." Armor!Al said apologetically: "They took my body away. But, I promise I'll get it back before my soul disappears from this armor."

"Fullmetal, what happened here?" called Roy as he ran towards them with Riza, Maria, Havoc and the rest of his close team members.

"Some members of the group who used to kidnap Sophie years ago turned up out of sudden and abduct Al." Ed said angrily.

"Abduct my physical body, nii-san." Armor!Al corrected.

"Anyway," Ed ignored Armor!Al's correction and pressed on: "They seem to have some business to deal with us so I'm going to set off with Al to get his body back while he can still guide me along. I don't think the part of his soul can last long in this armor."

"By a certain time, my soul will return back to my physical body." Armor!Al added.

"If that's the case, let's set off now!" Roy said.

"This is our own matter, we'll go by ourselves!" Ed protested.

"The enemy has retreated shortly after the both of you pursued that person. I'm going to get to the bottom of it." Roy said.

"That army must have been trying to hold us back while the main people attacked the Elric brothers." Riza said.

Armor!Al quickly led the way while the others followed.

"What about the rest?" Armor!Al suddenly asked.

"Archer and the rest will station where we had last rested till we return." Roy replied.

* * *

**NOTE:**

Armony Eiselstein and Sophie Belkman are the main female characters from FMA Playstation games: 'Tobenai Tenshi' and 'Kami o Tsugu Shoujo' respectively. Tiffany and Godoa are villians from 'Kami o Tsugu Shoujo'.


	4. Shattered Hope

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga/games, so pls don't sue me!

**Summary:** Post movie and OVA, Ed and Al went to live in the real world without their alchemist ability till year 2005. It was the end of the story after their lives ended in the real world, or wasn't it? Inspired after FMA OVA. **Not continuing unless there are reviews.**

**WARNING:** FMA anime, manga & game spoilers! Rating will go up.

**Pairing**: Ed/Al brotherly love, Hohem/Dante, Hohem/Trisha, Havoc/Maria, Ed/Winry

**AU:** There is no made-up character in this fic though there's a lot of characters crossover for FMA manga/anime/games. I'm getting tired of doing multi-chap fanfic. Hope my interest won't extinguish before I complete this fic. Sigh...

**Refer to image of FMA Manga/game casts at: http:(slash slash)i14(dot)photobucket(dot)com(slash)albums(slash)a333(slash)lysergkun(slash)othercast(dot)jpg

* * *

**

Hi shaolin feilong: Thanks… glad u like my fic, I'm pretty bad in romantic fics..

Hi S J Smith: Al will definitely take ur words… heeheehee… hope u'll enjoy this chap…

Hi Grislam: MUAHAHA, Archer's going to be scare of u.. I've seen many PS game characters and read the content of the game, it's a pity that they are not included in fanfics.. Arigato…

* * *

**Chapter 04: Shattered Hope **

Cold wind cut their skin like flying blades as a group of dark figures made their way through the falling snow. Only one of them was not affected by the freezing weather at all.

"Wait for us, Al!" barked Ed as he hurried behind his younger brother.

"I have to hurry while I can feel where my body goes, nii-san!" Armor!Al called back. He stopped, turned and piggy-backed his elder brother.

"What is this for?" Ed roared.

"It'll be faster if I carry you. Once my soul exhausts from this armor, you can guide Colonel Roy and the rest."

"Good thinking, Alphonse!" Riza said as she struggled against the beating snow.

"Be careful, boys." Maria said worriedly.

"We will, thank you, Maria-san." Armor!Al said and ran off with Ed.

Besides Maria, Havoc sighed: "If I can come out of this mission alive, Lt Ross, can you be my girlfriend?"

Maria rolled her eyes: "This is not the time for jokes, Lt Havoc."

"Another personal talk and you're going to be left behind," Riza said.

* * *

Soft light emitted from a large transmutation circle lit the dark hall, increasing its already mysterious atmosphere. In the middle of the circle laid a 13-year-old boy with ponytail. His dark red hooded coat brought a strong contrast against his pale face and blond hair. His eyes closed tightly and he was muttered non-sensible words under his breath as he slept on. Behind his back, his arms were bound tightly as he curled in a foetus like manner.

"I don't get it, the drug should have wore off by now." Tiffancy grunted. Godao nodded.

"He was talking to me from an armor, I believe his soul is not here at all." The man with dark make up said.

"Probably so, Leonard." A well-built man with strange mask said as he stood out of the shadow, looking at the sleeping boy.

In the darkness, a cold feminine voice said: "In that case, Zerugiu, we'll have to wait for his soul to come back before we can start anything."

* * *

Along the way, Armor!Al and Ed were aghast to see snow chimeras and soldiers in white merging from their hiding places to attack them.

"There's too many of them!" Ed growled: "It's so irritating!"

Armor!Al stumped the chimeras onto the ground and suddenly clapped his hands onto them: "Since there's no other armors around, I'll try transmuting part of my soul into these corpses."

"Al, do you know what is disgusting?" Ed squeaked as the corpses rose up to attack their former allies like zombies.

"What else can we do? We'll be dragging more time if we fight in the normal way." Armor!Al protested.

"How long do we have to go, Al?" Ed shouted as he sent his blade crashing through the chimeras and the soldiers' weapons.

"I think it's somewhere in that white tower over there!" Armor!Al called and pointed so that Ed could see.

Just then wind-like armors swept past the brothers, crushing the remaining enemies from them. Al's zombie-like dolls fell back to the ground. "How are you doing, Edward... Alphonse?" A middle aged man appeared besides them.

"Oto-san?" Armor!Al cried in surprise.

"Why are you here?" Ed asked, remembering the last time he saw his father died under dragon!Envy's jaws.

"I'm not too sure. One moment Envy's jaws fell on me and the next moment, I came back to this place. I can feel Dante calling me." Hohenheim said, brushing the accumulating snow from his head.

"Dante...calling you??" Ed said in disbelief: "That old hag?"

"I'm going ahead of you, sons. I have to see what is she up to this time." Hohenheim smiled back at Ed's worried face: "There's nothing to worry about actually."

"She might be the one who has sent people to take Al's body!" Ed retorted: "What if, what if.." He could not bear to think further.

"My body's still intact, nii-san." Armor!Al said: "I can feel it."

"I'll get you out of her grip if she really holds your body, Alphonse. Another thing, please don't go deeper into soul transmutation if you can manage it, it might lead to disastrous consequence." Hohenheim said, petted Armor!Al on his shoulder and soon disappeared amidst the snow.

"Wait, Toosan!" Armor!Al cried out. Abruptly, his head started to vibrate uncontrollably.

"Al...AL!!!!" Ed screamed and grabbed hold of Al's armor body, but the gleam in the head flickered uncertainly.

"The time is up. I'm going back to my physical body now, nii-san, see you later..." Al's voice trailed off.

"ALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ed hugged the armor head and screamed. Al's armor body collapsed onto the snow-covered soil.

* * *

Al felt himself lying on a cold floor. His eyes remained shut, so that no one knew that his soul had returned back to his body. Very carefully, he tested his limbs and found them tightly bound.

"Quit acting, little boy, we know you are awake." A deep voice said.

"Don't frighten him, Zerugiu." A familiar feminine voice said calmly and Al felt warm fingers stroking his face: "You're safe here, Alphonse."

"Kaa-san!" Al cried as he opened his eyes. True enough, his eyes met that of Trisha Elric's warm brown eyes. Al yelped in surprise to see himself lying in the middle of a large transmutation circle.

"Your father should be here soon enough. Then, we can perform the transmutation ritual to put your father's damage body in place. We should have more than enough Philosopher's Stones to do it." There was no shiver in her tone as though it was common to carry out human transmutation circle.

"You are not my Kaa-san," Al gasped and paled: "Did... you kill her and took over her body?"

"I'm glad you've got the situation right, Alphonse. You are such a clever boy." Dante beamed and patted Al's face almost lovingly.

Al shrank away from her touch. In his silence shock, he stared at the person who could have been his mother if her body had not been taken over by someone else. Mixure of hatred and anger burnt in his eyes. For years in the other world, though Al had the joy of being a father, a grandfather and subsequently a great grandfather, he had never forget the smile of his mother-Trisha Elric for even a moment. Inwardly, he desired the old times he and Ed had spent with their mother when they were young.

"We've got some company, Dante," a cold feminine voice interrupted Al's thought and a woman in dark tight clothing emerged from the dark.

"Well then, we'll go and play around with them, Camilla." Leonard said with a smile.

Camilla ignored him. She was not really keen to chat with people such as this young man with dark colour make up. But he seemed interested enough to irritate her with conversations whenever possible.

_'Nii-san... Too-san... what should I do now?_' thought Al sadly.

* * *

From the top of a snowy mountain, a tall figure watched as a team of Amestris soldiers approaching the kneeling Fullmetal Alchemist. He put down his binoculars. There was a tattoo in his left eye. Behind him stood the troop from Drachma.

"Al has gone back to his physical body. He said he is in that icy castle over there." Ed turned to Roy and pointed the direction: "I've seen my father, he said he could feel Dante calling for him from there."

"Let's go." Havoc said and added as he looked at Ed's anxious face: "Your brother should be ok... WhaT?!" The ice beneath them cracked and was pulled apart. One or two soldiers fell through the gap with screams of fright.

"There's an attack! Everyone, stay alert!" roared Roy. From afar, merged strangely armed chimeras and soldiers.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? The dogs from Amestris military?" A cold voice laughed.

"Camilla!" growled Roy: "Are you working for Dante?"

"Not exactly, we have our own goal to meet. How do you like my army?" smirked Camilla: "It's so much better than working as a state alchemist dog in the military."

Other side, Godoa emerged with a roar and started attacking the soldiers. He was aided by Leonard and Triffany. From the top of the mountain, the tall man and his Drachma troop vanished amidst the flying snow.

* * *

Hohenheim climbed up the spiraling staircases. He could sense the soul of his younger son somewhere above him. A large door opened before him.

"I'm so glad to see you again, Hohenheim." Dante smiled: "How do you like my new body?"

"You've killed Trisha?" Hohenheim asked softly: "Why did you do that for?"

"Human beings are so fragile. Anyway, she has already died once, there's not much difference for her to die again. She should be glad that she does not have to suffer another meaningless life." Dante said, examining her fingers and looked up at Hohenheim. To her surprise, there was no fury in his eyes, except pity.

"What do you mean by that expression?" snapped Dante.

"I feel so sorry for you, Dante." said Hohenheim: "You've told me many times that you are drifting away from humanity, but what you are doing now is no difference from any human being I've known."

He turned to look at Al who was lying in the middle of the transmutation circle with blank expression, ignoring the events happening around him: "Al is innocent, I hope you can release him now. Alphonse, are you alright?" he asked.

"Kaa-san's dead..." Al muttered almost to himself: "She has killed Kaa-san and took over her body."

"You should be glad for what I'm going to do next. Your body has been deteriorating. Wouldn't it be nice if we can transfer energy and youth from this boy into you?" Dante smiled gently: "Together, we can easily take over the land of Drachma and Amestris as conquerors."

"This is not necessary and I'm surprise you have taken interest in this ambition lately, Dante." Hohenheim said and he walked towards Al. Dante watched closely.

"Oh, I forgot, you'll start activating the transmutation circle the moment I step into it, am I right?" Hohenheim said and his steps paused.

'Shall I push him in?" suggested Zerugiu.

"No, no, it isn't nice to push an old man into a circle by a young man like you." Hohenheim shook his head. He suddenly clapped his hand, transmuting a stone hand reaching for Al. Dante transmuted force crashing the stone.

Al struggled and tried to edge himself out of the circle, but something seemed to hold him fast onto the ground.

Nearby, Al could hear his father asking Dante as their battle went on: "Were you the one to send people in disguise of Drachma and Amestris soldiers to kidnap people from both countries to create the Philosopher's Stones as well as to distort the two countries' relationship, Dante?"

"So what if I did?" Dante asked as she shot another round of forces at Hohenheim who crashed them easily.

"Why are you doing such a thing?" cried Al and turned to Zerugiu: "Do you people enjoy seeing sufferings so much?"

"That-is-not-your-position-to-ask, boy." Zerugiu said slowly.

Al bit hard on his lips and his palms touched the transmutation circle. There was a strong glow and his bounds broke. He stumbled away from the circle. Dante looked up from the battle in surprise.

"Don't let that boy escape!" She ordered. Zerugiu activated fire blocking Al's path and the fire spread to surround him in all direction.

"Alphonse! Are you ok?" A familiar voice called as the person rushed into the hall.

"Col... Lt.Havoc?" Al saw Havoc stumbling up the staircase.

"The rest are held up by chimeras and some enemy soldiers. I'm here..here.. to save you!" Havoc panted.

"Is Al up there?" retorted the panting Ed as he ran after Havoc.

"NII-SAN!!" Al cried. Automatically, he transmuted wind and blew up a path to run towards them.

Zerugiu growled and shot fire after him.

"Al!" Hohenheim screamed and pushed Al away. Al stared in shock as the fire engulfed his father. Hohenheim smiled benignly at his younger son before the flame devoured him.

"Tooo-san..." Al said blankly, disbelieved what he saw: "TOO-SAN!!!!!!"

"Hohenheim!" screamed Dante and giving a look at Zerugiu, she transmuted a stone snake to push the burning Hohenheim into the transmutation circle.

Havoc gave a yelp of shock as pillars collapsed.

"ALLL!!!" Ed cried and pulled his younger brother out of the chaos. He could feel flashes of light behind him: "HAVOC, LT HAVOC, WHERE ARE YOU??!!"

There was no response. Hurriedly, Ed carried the still stunned Al out of the tower before it collapsed.

"Fullmetal, what happen?" Riza asked as she ran up to him. Triffany, Camilla, Godoa and Leonard, like previous times, had retreated and vanished into the snowstorm the moment the tower collapsed.

"We lost Lt.Havoc." Ed said motionlessly. In his arms, Al only stared in the air with blank expression.

"I don't believe this." Maria said and rushed towards the collapsing tower.

"What do you think you are doing? As your superior, I command you to stop proceeding to that area!" roared Roy.

"..Yes, Sir!" But Ed could see Maria biting her lower lips and trying hard to blink back her tears as she saluted to Roy.

"There's nothing we can do now. First Lt, you'll comb up the place with Soul Alchemist and the rest of the troop." Roy ordered: "Fullmetal and Lt Ross will follow me back to the camp to report this matter to the headquarter via radio."

"Yes, Sir!" saluted Riza.

* * *

Roy could not contain his shock to see Archer's camp in a mess with corpses lying all over the place. A few injured soldiers told them that the Drachma soldiers had attacked them shortly after Roy and the rest had left. One commented that he saw the general of the opposite army resembling the previous Fuhrer-King Bradley. Frank Archer and a few soldiers were missing during the attack.

On the other side, Al had transmuted the debris away for inspection. Riza and the rest could only managed to pull out the badly damaged corpse of Light Hohenheim whom Al glanced blankly for a long time without a word or tear. Riza looked away. She would rather Al to cry or yell to vent his depression. Other than Hohenheim, Havoc and other people's bodies were nowhere to be found.

"Can I take Too-san back for burial?" Al asked in low voice. Riza nodded.

Within a day, Roy commanded all surviving members to pack up and calling back Riza and the rest, they made their way back to the capital where much to his relief, had been well defended by Armstrong and the rest.

"But this is strange," Armstrong reflected: "I have a feeling the army was only trying to show that Drachma had the interest to cripple Amestris instead of really springing a real attack."

"Al has told me something what he had heard in the tower." Ed said and related what he was told by his younger brother.

"Then that explains it, Fuhrer has just updated me with information that the country of Drachma accusing us of attacking them while we were being attacked at the same time." Armstrong nodded and walked towards the Headquarter: "I'll have to report this matter to the Fuhrer whether there is evidence or not."

"Speaking of your brother, where is Alphonse?" Roy asked. He was still distracted by the rumors of seeing someone resembling King Bradley during the attacks.

"Al has went back home with father's body and told me that he wishes to be alone..." Ed said quietly and suddenly retorted angrily: "WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS??!! We share the same parents! It's as though he is the only one to have the right for being upset about our parents' death?!"

"Because your father has died from saving him. It's a survivor's guilt." Riza said quietly: "Maybe you can talk to him later. By the way, did anyone see Lt Ross?"

"Same condition as Al, she's upset over the loss of Lt.Havoc." Ed said and ran off: "I better go home now, who knows what that brat is up to?!"

* * *

Winry went to knock Al's door: "Open the door, Al, you've been staying in the room for hours." There was no response. Winry turned the knob and went in. The room was empty. There was a piece of paper on the table. Her eyes widened in shock as she read its content.

"Winry!" Ed's voice called from below: "How's everyone?"

Winry could hear Armony running to Ed, updating him: "Everyone's ok, how about you?"

"Fine, thanks." Ed looked around the house anxiously: "Is Al still in his room?"

"No, you jerk!" Winry ran out of the room and hit Ed hard on his head: "Why are you brothers always enjoy making me worried so much?!" She hugged Ed and cried.

"Hey, hey, wait, many people are watching us!" Ed protested.

"Al is missing and he wrote that he is leaving home with Wrath!" sobbed Winry.

"Did you mention Wrath?" Izumi stormed into the house: "No wonder I couldn't find him the whole day, did Al mention where they are going??"

"W..wait... Al and Wrath are...MISSING??!!! Are you sure?" Ed asked, pulling Winry from his shoulder.

"Al has left a note on the room table, saying they would be away and would not come back again!" sobbed Winry and flashed a note to Ed.

"Damnit," Ed read the note and recognised Al's handwriting: "What is that brat thinking of again?!"

He had always remembered Al as a cool minded person who would not act hastily without thought. It was unbelievable that he would run away from home with the mere death of their parents after what they both had gone through for the past few years.

Izumi was silence in thought and suddenly asked: "Winry, can you remember where Wrath and Al last went before this world changes?"

"I think... wait, I think I know a place!" Winry's eyes lit. She dashed out of the house.

"Winry! Wait up!" panted Ed. Armony and Izumi ran after them.

* * *

**TBC**

* * *

**NOTE:**

Sophie- main female character from FMA PS game 'Kami wo Tsugu Shoujo'

Armony- main female character from FMA PS game 'Tobenai Tenshi'

Camilla - A character from FMA PS game 'Tobenai Tenshi'

Zerugiu (fire), Tiffany (wind), Shadow Leonard (ice) and Godoa (earth) - 4 people team from FMA PS game 'Kami wo Tsugu Shoujo'


	5. The pursuers from Xing

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga/games, so pls don't sue me!

**Summary:** Post movie and OVA, Ed and Al went to live in the real world without their alchemist ability till year 2005. It was the end of the story after their lives ended in the real world, or wasn't it? Inspired after FMA OVA. **Not continuing unless there are reviews.**

**WARNING:** FMA anime, manga & game spoilers! Rating will probably go up as the story progresses.

**Characters involved:** Al, Ed, Hughes, Roy Mustang, Archer, Chang Mei, Winry, Armony, Sophie, Ran Fan, Envy, Izumi, Wrath, Rose, King Bradley, manga characters….

**AU:** There is no made-up character in this fic though there's a lot of characters crossover for FMA manga/anime/games. I'm getting tired of doing multi-chap fanfic. Hope my interest won't extinguish before I complete this fic. Sigh...

**Refer to image of FMA Manga/game casts at**: http:(slash slash)i14(dot)photobucket(dot)com(slash)albums(slash)a333(slash)lysergkun(slash)othercast(dot)jpg

* * *

Hi loolala , arigato, guess you're going to continue hating me after all… hahahaha…

* * *

**Chapter 05: The pursuers from Xing**

The soft dripping of water in the dark tunnel did not lighten Frank Archer's tense mood as he struggled fruitlessly under the grip of a short man with long spiky hair whom he remembered was a homunculus of name 'Envy'.

"What a disappointment," a tall man in white robe shook his head as he injected some strange liquid into the captured Amestris soldiers one by one and sweeping it up whenever the subject soldier bled to death from the substance. "I'm expecting some good quality men among the troops who can withstand the Philosopher's stone. Bring in this soldier, he's a Colonel rank soldier, is he not?" The man asked Envy.

"Hm yeah, so I've heard." Envy smirked.

"He's the last in the captives we have brought, Father." King Bradley said, looking back at the pile of corpses they had disposed after the experiments.

"Here goes..." said Envy in a singsong manner as he watched 'Father' lowering the needle into Archer's arm.

Archer's scream rang the cold air.

* * *

Al looked up at the high ceiling as he followed Wrath into the underground city where they had gone to open the gate of Transmutation. Walking around, Al went to test the transmutation circle on the ground. He shook his head. 

"What else do we need?" Wrath asked.

"Philosopher's stone. I should have grab some from Dante during that battle. I need to transmute myself over there with that stone as a passing fee." Al sighed disappointedly after searching the place with no result.

"I'm sick and tired of all things!" retorted Wrath: "Don't other people ever suspect why certain people were raised from dead and there's some funny things going around, I don't like it!"

"So do I," sighed Al wearily: "I need to talk to 'Truth'. I think he knows something. That's why I need to open that gate again."

"He's the guardian of the gate of Transmutation, right? That's what you've mentioned." Wrath asked. Al nodded.

Wrath continued: "Do you think we can find Philosopher's stones at the debris where Dante was last shown?"

"We've combed the area, there was not a single Philosopher's stone found." Al replied. He suddenly looked up and glanced around: "Did you feel someone watching us?"

Wrath looked and suggested: "Nope. Do you think we can go and search the stones ourselves?" Al was still staring at a direction.

"Hello, is there anyone there?!" Al called as he walked. There was no response.

"AL! WRATH!" Winry's voice called from the opposite direction: "I CAN HEAR YOU! WE CAN TALK OVER!" Al froze in his step.

"Uh-oh." Wrath said softly.

Within seconds, Winry and Ed pounced onto Al while Izumi stormed before Wrath. Armony followed behind.

"AL! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING???!!!" Ed roared angrily and shook Al.

"We... we were thinking of opening...the gate...again..." whispered Wrath from the other side before Al could stop him.

Izumi walked over to Al. Suddenly, Al felt heated pain on his cheek where his sensei's hand had went.

"Do you know what you are doing?" Izumi said in a disappointed voice and suddenly roared: "AFTER WHAT THOSE NONSENSES YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING??!!!"

"I'm sorry, Sensei." Al said softly, looking at the ground, not daring to look up: "We will not do it again."

"But-but!" protested Wrath.

Izumi glared at him: "Were you the one who started the idea?"

"I don't want all these funny things, don't you ever wonder why there are some conflicting memories whenever people interact with one another? I remember myself as a homunculus, but I don't feel myself as one anymore!" Wrath pulled off his hand band which he had wore ever since his return from death, revealing several dried scars on his wrist. "I've cut myself before and I cannot heal myself anymore! I don't even know whether I even exist in this world at all! I can't stand it, I want OUT!" screamed Wrath.

"Isn't it alright just to know that I'm your mother and I'll care for you regardless what happen? Is that not enough for you? YOU ARE MY CHILD AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS!" screamed Izumi as she shook Wrath hard.

Wrath glanced at her in stunned silence. Izumi pulled him into an embrace and cried.

"Al, does it still hurt?" Winry asked and rubbed the hit cheek gently. Al shook his head with tears falling out of his eyes.

"I've prepared the dinner at home, Al. Let's go home before the food turns cold." Izumi said, looking up.

"Right," Ed nodded and pulled Al to his chest, fearing his younger brother would run away again. Armony was still looking at a direction where Al had last glared.

"What's wrong, Armony?" Ed asked.

"Uh-no, nothing." Armony shook her head: "I must be imagining things."

* * *

As Frank Archer remained missing. Al was temporarily transferred to Armstrong's team with Cony. Al went to apologise to Roy and Maria for the loss of Havoc, but since his corpse was not found, they could not confirm his death yet. Still, Al had an uneasy feeling that Havoc was no longer around. 

The top military council held an emergency meeting about the situation between Drachma and Amestris. It was rumored that all communication lines between the border had been completely cut off when the Fuhrer attempted to communicate with the President of Drachma. Some officers were dispatched to investigate the matter.

In the meantime, Armstrong insisted Al to take a leave break. Ed followed suit.

"Hi, Ed... Al.., I'm taking a leave break with you too." Sophie said.

"Where should we go, nii-san?" Al asked.

"Shall we go to Lior to visit Rose? We've not been seeing her since our return." suggested Ed: "She'll like you too, Sophie." He winked at the female state alchemist.

"No objection." smiled Sophie.

"Let's ask Winry too," Al said.

As expected, Winry was more than happy to join them for the trip, so was Armony. Izumi was not interested in going, claiming she wanted to spend more time with Wrath and her husband in peace. A day later, they found their way to the railway station to board the train towards Lior.

Ed was still reflecting Wrath's words: "..._don't you ever wonder why there are some conflicting memories whenever people interact with one another?"_ as well as Al's expression whenever his memory did not seem to click with his.

"Hey, Al." Ed called his brother who was sitting on the opposite seat, reading: "Do you know how a homunculus is created?"

"Isn't a homunculus created due to failed human transmutation?" Al asked, flipping his pages. He noticed his brother's surprised expression: "What's wrong, nii-san?"

"Uh.. nothing." Ed said. He recalled his last time meeting a certain person with Al, Envy and Glutton as well as that person from Xing Country and he remembered vividly that homunculus was created by injecting a Philosopher's stone from that certain person's third eye into a victim's body. He did not dare to voice out his thought for fear of provoking Al.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, except when the three girls started pestering the Elric brothers (especially Ed) until Ed ran off to hide in the restroom. Al continued to read his book despite Winry's several attempt to force him to play cards with the rest of them.

Rose was overjoyed to see Ed and Al again and insisted all of them to stay in her house for the night. The city of Lior had been peaceful since the overthrown of King Bradley-the ex Fuhrer and Rose was currently working by taking care of other children in homes.

"Looks like I'll need to buy plenty of food today. Can anyone help me carry the things?" Rose asked.

"I'll help!" Al quickly put up his hand.

"I.." Ed started.

"Nii-san, you'll stay with the rest of them and make up your mind whom you want to go with." Al whispered under his breath: "Don't make Winry wait for you forever."

"Al.." Ed said, but his younger brother had swept out of the house after Rose.

"Hm, well, what shall we do here?" asked Ed awkwardly.

"I feel so bad sitting here and not helping Rose-san." Armony said guiltily. She suddenly looked up to Ed: "Can I still learn alchemy from you? I miss your lessons."

"W..WHAT?!" Winry gasped and looked quickly from Armony to Ed.

"Hm.. well, sorry, Armony, I'm not sure if your body had managed it or not." Ed said uneasily.

"Why not?" asked Sophie, looking at Armony.

"Because of the 'wings' I think..." Armony said, thinking of her long ago past. She rearranged her face and smiled: "Never mind, it's ok actually."

"Ed, there's something I want to ask you for a long time," Sophie said seriously: "You've told me you've seen Triffany, Godoa and the rest during the last mission, right? Why are they after you and Al?"

"I don't understand about Camilla either. You've mentioned she's working under a lady named Dante?" Armony asked.

"Al told me she wanted to repair my (father) old man's body so that they can rule the world or something like that." shrugged Ed.

"How's Dante like?" asked Sophie and Armony. Even Winry looked attentively at Ed.

"Well... she's an old hag and she seems obsessive with my old man..." Ed was glad there was something he could chat with them without the awkward silence among them.

_'Forget about Al's words, I'll rather not to think about this troublesome relationship matter for now._' thought Ed.

* * *

Rose carried a shopping bag in her hand and turned to look at Al who was following behind and was balancing three big bags of food which were almost covering his face: "Sorry for troubling you, Al. Do let me know if you can't handle it." 

"No problem, I can manage it." Al struggled with the bags, half-wishing he could get some armor to help him with the things. Suddenly, he felt a wind of a short person rushing by him, followed by a group of masked people in black.

"What's that?" Rose gasped and yelped as another flash of black crashed into her causing her to collapse and fell onto the ground.

"Wait for me here, Rose-san, I'll go and take a look." Al said and set the things down to run after the people.

"Don't think you can get away!" A masked person snarled as he shot a flying dagger at the short figure in front.

"Try if you can manage it!" hissed a feminine voice. It was an Eastern girl with black hair and dark eyes. She looked around 13 years old.

"Let's not waste our time and finish this brat off." called another masked person and fired more daggers.

A wall boomed up from the ground behind the girl, blocking the daggers. The girl looked up to see a teenager with ponytail and red coat facing his back before her. He had transmuted the floor to help her.

"Edward Elric?" The girl said.

_'Nii-san... Just how MANY girls have you known behind my back_???!!' Al growled inwardly to himself and started planning how to get words out of his elder brother when he returned to Rose's house.

"Edward Elric?" The masked person echoed and pulled down the mask. It was a young lady in her early twenties.

"May I know how you are related to my nii-san?" Al asked warily.

"Your nii-san? You.. you can't be Alphonse Elric! I remember Edward's brother is an empty armor!" exclaimed the young lady. Just then, the wind blew up bit of her long sleeve, she had an automail arm: "I'm Ran Fan. We used to meet before, at least 3 years ago."

"A...Alphonse-sama?" sparkled the girl behind him, a hopping tiny panda leaped onto her shoulder: "I'm Chang Mei and this is my panda, Xiao Mei. Can you remember us?"

"Oh my..." Al groaned. He could not remember who they were at all, but how was he going to tell them that?

"Anyway, you're to accept our punishment back, whether you like it or not!" snarled Ran Fan.

"We'll see about that, woman!" retorted Chang Mei. They started fighting again. Ran Fan's helpers stood behind and waited for her instruction.

"Hey... Wait, stop fighting, you might hurt each other as well as other people!" cried Al and he ran up to interfere.

"Stop interfering with our country's affair!" shouted Ran Fan: "This girl is a traitor and is wanted by our Emperor!"

"I don't care what you people are talking about, but a few people fighting a little girl on the street in broad daylight... I won't allow it!" Al shouted back.

Al blocked several blows from Ran Fan and pulled Chang Mei into a run away from her pursuers. After turning a few corners, they came to a stop, as they did not seem to be following.

"We've met again, Alphonse." A deep voice said. Al looked up to see Scar standing a few distance away. "Lust has went to handle the people over there. You should be safe for time being, little girl." Scar nodded towards Chang Mei.

"Scar-san!" Chang Mei called happily: "That dogs of Yao family have chased me along the street again. It's their misfortune to run into you I guess." She grinned and turned to Alphonse, starting to examine him closely.

"Is there anything else?" Al asked curiously.

"Long hair... Short figure... hmmm, all right, at least you've got your face right. You do not look intense..." Chang Mei muttered: "Hey, you liar, you said you were taller than your brother and you have short, crisp, golden hair! I don't see short hair nor do I see tall figure!"

"I'm short because I'm 13 years old, you'll wait till I reach 16, I'll be at least 1.7m tall. My hair is long, because I'm too lazy to cut it short like old days." Al said frustrated: "Anyway, I'm going off, I can't keep Rose-san waiting."

"Wait, is Rose-san your girlfriend?"

"No."

"I'm coming with you!"

"I'm not following you, little girl," Scar said coldly and disappeared into the street.

"W..Wait, Scar-san.." Al called. He wanted to ask Scar something but did not know where to begin with.

"Let's go, Alphonse-sama!" chipped Chang Mei.

"Al, are you alright?" Rose ran up to him: "Let's not keep the rest waiting for too long. Who is this little girl?" She looked at Chang Mei with interest.

"I'm Chang Mei from Country of Xing!" Chang Mei chipped and pointed to her black and white pet on her shoulder: "And she's Xiao Mei."

* * *

Back in the comfort of Rose's residence... 

"YOU BEAN-SIZED GIRL!" screamed Ed.

"YOU BEAN-SIZED BRAT! AND STILL SHORT AS EVER!" retorted Chang Mei.

"Ed, can you keep your volume down?" Winry asked wearily.

"Nii-san, can you please explain everything?" Al asked.

"Do you have any girlfriend now?" Chang Mei asked Al.

"Why do you ask?" Al asked suspiciously.

"It's our promise! We said we'll be together once you've got your body back!" exclaimed Chang Mei.

"Did I ever say that?" Al asked bewildered.

"Al, since when did you become so romantic?" grinned Winry.

"That's great, Al-kun!" added Armony.

"We'll fully support you, Al!" slapped Sophie on Al's back.

"Al-chan," Ed wolf-whistled happily, having finally found an excuse to tease his younger brother: "You must be responsible for your acts! MUAHAHAHA!"

"Noo... Wait, I did not say that before!" Al protested anxiously.

"That's too bad, Al-chan, looks like she'll be clinging onto you from now on." Ed laughed, looking at the satisfied Chang Mei holding onto Al's arm.

It was snowing heavily in the Central of Amestris and the sky appeared darker though it was late noon. A man with torn uniform stepped into the headquarter of the Military.

Some soldiers stared at him in stunned silence for a short while and quickly saluted to him.

"Looks like I'm back home now." breathed Frank Archer excitedly as he turned into a dark corner.

* * *

**TBC**

* * *

**NOTE:**

**Chang Mei**-seventeenth princess from Country of Xing in FMA manga. She had asked Al regarding his physical appearance in Issue 62 when he was an armor, but he did not expect what she was thinking in her mind.

**Ran Fan**-bodyguard of Yao Ling who was a prince from country of Xing in FMA manga.

**'Father'**-a character from FMA manga

In FMA PS Game, Armony had been unable to master alchemy because she was a creation from her father's real daughter and learning alchemist will affect the growth of her 'wings' which would lead to her death. Initially unaware of her problem, she went to learn alchemy from Edward Elric and had developed friendship with him.

**AU:** Actually, I'm already drafting the last 2-3 chapters of this fic so that I can have a better idea how to round up the entire fanfic chapters. I'm currently struggling with my time management. Will see if I can complete everything before my 'heat' in this fanfic cools down. Don't wanna see it ends up like my other multi chapter fanfics….


	6. Father of Homuncli

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga/games, so pls don't sue me!

**WARNING:** FMA anime, manga & game spoilers! Rating will probably go up as the story progresses.

**Characters Involved**: Al, Ed, Chang Mei, Winry, Sophie, Armony, Dante, 'Father', Envy, Ran Fan, Archer, Roy, Hughes, Leonardo, Triffany, Godoa

**AU: **There is no made-up character in this fic though there's a lot of characters crossover for FMA manga/anime/games. I'm getting tired of doing multi-chap fanfic. Hope my interest won't extinguish before I complete this fic. Sigh...

**Refer to image of FMA Manga/game casts at**: http:(slash slash)i14(dot)photobucket(dot)com(slash)albums(slash)a333(slash)lysergkun(slash)othercast(dot)jpg

* * *

Hi Danny Barefoot: Glad u like my fic… Err. How do you know I'm going to slaughter some people? Btw, there's more than 10 chapters for this fic and I'm in the process of completion soon…. Arigato…(smile)

Hi S J Smith: Heehee, glad u like my fic.. I'm still struggling with the relation thingy though… (scratch head)

Hi Twilight-Cullen: It's ok, at least u are reviewing now…(grin) I've not seen any other fic with crossovers from anime/manga/games before so I'm curious to try one, especially when the differences between anime and manga is so great. Actually, I've never play the games before, I got the content from an FMA community board. (grin)

* * *

**Chapter 06: The Father of Homunculi

* * *

**

The phone receiver from Fuhrer Armstrong's hand slipped onto the table as he stared into the space in shock.

"Mr Fuhrer, Mr Fuhrer Sir?" His officer on the other line called.

_'This is impossible... How could the entire population of Drachma disappear within a week?_' Fuhrer Armstrong reflected the sudden report that he had received a minute ago.

His officers, under the lead of Major Armstrong, had managed to reach the Northern country to find a totally isolated and abandoned city of Drachma. There was no struggle or destruction. It was like all citizens left off with whatever they were doing and disappeared into thin air. Along the street and inside some households, the soldiers could see cooking pots boiling over slow fire or hastily abandoned working tools in ironsmith shops, etc. The scene was unnerving.

"I want an emergency meeting right now." Fuhrer Armstrong told his secretary.

"Yes, Mr. Fuhrer."

* * *

At the train station, Rose was reluctant to see them go, but the Elric brothers insisted on going back to their hometown to bury Hohenheim's ash near where their house used to be.

"Do come back if you are free, guys!" waved Rose as she ran along side with the departing train, shouting at them.

"We will, Rose!" they waved back.

"Where's that bean-sized girl?" Ed asked Al, half expecting her to pop out to cling onto his younger brother.

"I saw her a second ago near the restroom. I'll look for her if she doesn't comes back... Look! It's snowing!" Al suddenly pointed the sky.

"It's so pretty!" exclaimed Armony. Sophie was nodding her head off on her seat. Ed sighed and took off his coat to cover her.

"I wonder how Grandma is doing now." whispered Winry, watching the falling snowflakes.

"I have a bad feeling about what's going to come next though..." muttered Al, almost to himself as he leaned his head against the windowsill.

* * *

The conference room was dark and cold, noted Roy Mustang as he listened to the heated arguments among the members of the top Council. Apparently, there was suspicion from Creata-a country in the West of Amestris and Areugo-a country in the South of Amestris regarding the sudden downfall of Drachma as it was the only militant state that had been heavily involved in event of Homunculi as well as mass production of Philosopher's Stones during the war with Ishbal.

One officer proposed joining force with Cresta and Areugo to investigate the matter while some others insisted that these two states might be the real culprit to eliminate Drachma before throwing the blame onto Amestris.

"What a bother," whispered Hughes to Roy: "If these two countries have really invaded Drachma, there should be at least corpses and burning buildings lying all over the place."

"Yeah," agreed Roy numbly, staring at Archer sitting on the other side of the table: "Did that guy said what he had encountered during his disappearance from the camp?"

"He said he was separated from the others during the confusion and had made his way back." Hughes said in low voice, watching Archer giving his heated speech about the high possibility of Cresta and Areugo's involvement in Amestris and Drachma's attacks.

"So, Alphonse is transferred back under Archer again?" Roy whispered, looking at several nodding elderly high ranked officers at Archer's speech and explanations.

"Yeah, I'll keep watch on that kid. I'm sure Archer can't do anything funny to him with us around." Hughes said.

* * *

Chang Mei was taking too long, noted Al as he looked at his watch and got up from his seat. His elder brother was dozing on his seat, so was Winry. Armony was reading quietly by the window. She looked up at Al from her book: "Where're you going, Al?"

"I'm going to check on Mei-chan, I won't be long."

"Ok." Armony returned to her book.

A blade pressed against Al's neck as he passed along the empty space between two carriages: "Where is that little Xingnese girl?" Al recognised the voice as Ran Fan.

"She's not with me right now." Al said.

"Fine then, you'll have to come with me. She'll come looking for you soon." Ran Fan said and pulled Al's arm behind his back.

"Do I look like someone who is easily taken as a hostage?" Al asked in surprise and fought back: "What's wrong between you two? Mei-chan refuses to tell me what's going on and you keep hunting for her."

"Al, what's going on?" Ed called as he approached his younger brother: "Ran Fan? Why are you fighting with my brother?"

"Don't you interfere!" snarled Ran Fan as she attempted to overpower Al, but failed. She reached for Al's neck.

"DON'T YOU DARE LAY YOUR FILTHY HAND ON **MY** ALPHONSE-SAMA!!!!" screamed Chang Mei from nowhere and started fighting Ran Fan.

"Al, since when did you become that bean-sized girl's property?" Ed asked in a mocked innocent voice.

"No, I'm not!" protested Al with reddened face.

"What's going on, Ed?" asked Winry and Sophie as they ran towards the confusion zone.

"Ra..." Ed began and paused. Armony's scream rang from afar.

"Armony!" Ed's face paled and raced back to their compartment in time to see a few of Xingnese masked men pulling Armony to her feet. One of them was holding his sword against her neck.

"Just what the hell is happening?!" shouted Ed angrily: "And let her go!"

"Chang Mei, you come back with us and we'll release this girl." commanded a masked man who looked like the leader of the group.

"Excuse me, am I to know that there's a great desert between Amestris and Xing and you are expecting her to follow you guys all the way along the desert?!" retorted Winry angrily: "I call that bullies!"

"You don't know anything, miss..." The masked man stared as Winry walked towards them menacingly.

"Now!" ED, Al and Sophie clapped their hands and sent metal hands flying from the ground to trap the masked men. Winry pulled Armony from her captives while Chang Mei kept watch on Ran Fan to make sure she did not do anything funny.

"Can you all kindly explain what's going on here?" smiled Winry friendlily a moment later.

"Not when we are all tied up like that." frowned Ran Fan, looking at her messily trapped fellow friends: "It's humiliating enough to be defeated without accomplishing our work." She looked at the curious stares from other passengers on the train.

"Now, now, Ran Fan, what's bothering between you and Chang Mei, I'm sure we can work it out." smirked Ed.

"Don't tell those people, you can't trust them, besides, it's our own country's affair!" One of the masked men shouted. Ran Fan looked at the grinning Ed and then at her acquaintances and sighed.

"Keep quiet, will you?" Ed said and stuffed cloth into his mouth: "What did that bean-size girl do this time?"

"Don't call me bean-size girl, you bean-size brat!" retorted Chang Mei.

"Quiet, Mei-chan." Al said before Ed started his rant.

"The incident started when our emperor started regaining back to his health a few weeks ago and this girl," Ran Fan glared at Chang Mei: "happened to steal something important from our emperor. That's why we need to take her back!"

"I DIDN'T TAKE ANYTHING FROM THE EMPEROR!" protested Chang Mei: "But I've heard something shocking outside an isolated room though."

"Don't give me that crap about our emperor being a homunculus, you little brat!" One of the masked men spitted at Chang Mei.

"But it's true!" Chang Mei shouted back: "Emperor was talking to someone whom he called 'Father'! I remember that 'Father' guy is someone who looks like human but is not one himself! Who else could Emperor refer to as 'Father' when the late emperor died many years ago?"

Ed's face immediately paled: "Is that really true, Chang Mei?"

"Nii-san, who is that?" Al asked suspiciously.

"I'll explain to you later." Ed said.

* * *

Dante made her way along a passageway to a well-hidden underground hall with tall ceiling impatiently. She had thought that her plan would work well and Hohenheim would be by her side again. Never did she think that it would backfire and she was back to square one again. The thoughts made her fumed.

"Good day, I've been waiting for you for a long time. King Bradley and Envy have been talking about you to me." said a deep voice that somehow filled Dante with strange dread.

"Who's there?" Dante asked coldly and turned to see a tall man walking out of the shadow within the confine of her secret headquarter.

"Hohenheim? But it couldn't be!" Dante looked into his face in shock.

"Anything is possible, Mdm Dante, if you can allow me to explain." The man smiled.

* * *

Pinako was deeply disappointed when Winry, Ed and Al made a very quick visit to her and left hurriedly after burying Hohenheim's ash in the family graveyard. Winry gathered more tools for her automail work before kissing Pinako and her dog-Den goodbye.

"Be careful when you are out there, children." waved Pinako.

"We will." waved Winry and the Elric brothers who ran to meet the rest who were waiting at the railway station. With Armony and Sophie around, Ran Fan did not attack Chang Mei anymore.

"We need to head back to the Central." Ed told them.

"I doubt I'll be able to return to Xing for time being," sighed Ran Fan: "with her," hinting Chang Mei. "...on the loose right now. I hate to think what young master will think."

"I remember Yao Ling has turned into Greed, isn't he not?" asked Ed.

"He is, but I believe he is currently battling with Greed within his body. In the meantime, I'll stay close and watch over him. He'll need all support if I can help. He's currently in Xing." Ran Fan said.

"That proves it." said Ed shortly: "Your emperor's probably under that 'Father''s command now."

"Nii-san, is that 'Father' figure that scary?" Al asked softly: "I really can't remember what happened during that time at all."

"Very and I hope we won't meet him in short time." Ed said grimly as they boarded the train back to Central.

It was close to night when they reached the Central. Ran Fan's followers left for their own accommodation else where while she accompanied them to Winry's residence. Along the street, the fog suddenly thickened and ice shot out towards them.

"GET DOWN!" screamed Ed and Ran Fan as all of them ran for cover. Sophie pulled Armony with her and ran. Winry and Chang Mei ran for safety in separate ways.

Ran Fan, Ed and Al tried to detect where the attacker was when another shot of ice flew at them, causing them to run separately. Amidst the fog, someone attacked Ed and he fought back to find it was Ran Fan who mistook him as an enemy.

"Nii-san, where are you?" Al yelled in the fog. He looked down to see the tiny shivering figure of Xiao Mei and put her on his shoulder so that he could return her to Chang Mei later. He suddenly noticed the back of Ed running in a direction and ran after him: "Nii-san!"

"Al, where are you?!" Ed yelled and was surprised to see the fog disappearing as fast as it had appeared: "Oh no, it could be a trick! AL!"

Ed looked around and inspected the crowd. Al and Winry were nowhere to be found.

"Al! Winry!" Ed paled in shock: "Ran Fan, can you feel any homunculus's aura?"

"Yes, but it's faltering very fast!" Ran Fan said anxiously and turned to run in a direction.

"XIAO MEI, WHERE ARE YOU??!!!" Chang Mei yelled in panic, finding her little panda missing.

To their horrors, a few people were waiting for them.

"Triffany, Leonardo and Godoa." Sophie said softly.

* * *

"Nii-san, where are you going? Wait for me!" Al cried as he ran after Ed. His elder brother had run into an underground subway where along the way, Al noticed strange creatures lurking by the flowing sewage and to his horrors, human skulls littered in dark corners nearby. Xiao Mei shivered and cowered on Al's shoulder and Al petted her fur: "Don't worry, I'll protect you."

Ed suddenly came to a stop and grinned at Al in a strange way.

A realisation suddenly dawned onto Al: "You... you are Envy!"

"That's right, former armor-boy!" Envy said as he reverted back to his usual face.

"Where are you taking me?" Al asked cautiously. He could feel the little panda recoiling against his neck in fear.

"Someone wants to meet you," Envy said: "Don't ask anymore questions, will you? We are almost there now."

"Is that person the 'Father' you people usually talk about?" asked Al.

"You mean you don't remember anything about him at all?" asked Envy in surprise.

Al shook his head and turned to walk back where he came from. Envy stretched his hand to grab Al. Al leaped away to transmute the floor. To his horror, nothing happened. He ducked just in time from another Envy's attack.

'What's happening to my alchemy?!' Al thought bewildered. Envy's hand flew towards his throat.

"Don't hurt him, Envy." A voice said.

"Oh, alright, father." Envy said and withdrew his arm.

Al turned to see a man walking towards him. Al's eyes widened in shock.

"Too-san?! That's impossible, I've seen you burnt to death with my very own eyes and I've just buried you!" Al gasped as the man's face came under the soft light from above the ground.

The man smiled warmly: "You must be Alphonse Elric. I'm glad you have gotten your body back from the gate." His hand reached to pet Al's face almost affectionately. Al tried to walk away, but somehow, his legs were too numb to move.

"You will help me open the gate of Transmutation." 'Father' said very slowly.

* * *

**TBC

* * *

**

_**MANGA SPOILERS:**_

Yao Ling turned into Greed in manga #14 after 'Father' injected the stone into his wound. Armor!Al had told Ran Fan the news after his meeting with 'Father' with Ed and Yao Ling.


	7. Realisation

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga/games, so pls don't sue me!

**WARNING:** FMA anime, manga & game spoilers! Rating will probably go up as the story progresses.

**Characters:** Al, Ed, Chang Mei, Winry, Sophie, Armony, Scar, Lust, 'Father', Envy, Leonardo, Triffany, Godoa, Archer

**AU:** There is no made-up character in this fic though there's a lot of characters crossover for FMA manga/anime/games. I'm getting tired of doing multi-chap fanfic. Hope my interest won't extinguish before I complete this fic. Sigh... **Please read and review!**

**Refer to image of FMA Manga/game casts at:** http:(slash slash)i14(dot)photobucket(dot)com(slash)albums(slash)a333(slash)lysergkun(slash)othercast(dot)jpg

* * *

Hi Renneh: glad u like my fic… arigato!

* * *

**Chapter 07: Realisation**

The underground subway was dark and wet when Winry made her way down after losing sight of Al and Ed while they were running in the fog. Just then, she caught sight of a familiar person.

"Scar?" Winry's eyes widened with shock.

"The daughter of the doctor couple?" said Scar. There was a lady in black standing besides him. "She's a friend of the Elric brothers, Lust." Scar explained to the lady.

"Why are you here?" Winry asked suspiciously. She did not forget how he had fought with the Elric brothers years ago and how she got to learn of his involvement in the murder of her parents during the Isabal war. "Were you the one who attack us earlier?"

"What are you talking about?" wondered Lust: "We were here all along to investigate a matter."

"Someone has attacked us on the ground. Ed and Al should be somewhere in this place by now." Winry almost muttered worriedly to herself.

"The Elric brothers are here?" echoed Scar. He started to make his way along the creepy passageway. Lust followed. Winry noticed human skulls lying in some dark areas and ran up to them quickly.

Afar, they could hear someone talking. As they neared, they heard a child-like voice echoing: "...Open the gate of Transmutation for you?"

"Al!" Winry whispered.

"There's someone else, we'll better be quiet." whispered Lust.

"Yes." came a low deep voice: "I've heard that you have been interested in doing that so that you can talk to a person named 'Truth', but you were hindered."

'That man... He's trying to get Al to sacrifice for him in human transmutation?' thought Winry angrily.

"How did you know that?" came Al's voice in surprise: "So, you were the one who eavesdropped on me when I was in the underground city."

"Well, it's a fair deal, isn't it?" came Envy's voice, indirectly admitting that they were the ones who had listened to Al and Wrath's conversation in the underground city.

"Well..." Al said, deep in thoughts.

'I believe Fullmetal alchemist's younger brother will not be dumb as to...' thought Scar when Al suddenly said: "Alright, but I need the Philosopher's stone in order to work."

Scar and Winry almost toppled in shock. Lust went bean-eyed.

'What is that little brat up to??!!' Winry thought angrily and made her attempt to dive out of the hiding place, but Lust pulled her back: "Wait a moment, that little boy probably has something else on his mind."

"That is not a problem." The man said.

"..And my alchemy is not working." added Al.

"Alright, I'll give you a Philosopher's stone and I'll restore your alchemy ability." The man said. Envy muttered something in disbelief.

An opening suddenly gapped on 'Father''s forehead like an eye and a red stone dropped out of it. He stamped a foot, radiating a force past Al. Al fingered the stone; it was much larger than what he could remember. Envy seemed to see the confusion in his face and said: "This stone was created from the souls of the entire Drachma."

"Can I do it now?" Al asked, trying to hide his shock at the recent fate of the people in Drachma.

'Father' smiled and nodded.

"Isn't the entire process far too smooth?" Envy asked aloud and tilted his head trying to look at Al from a different point of view.

Al pulled out his gloves with transmutation circle.

"Why don't you try without using it?" suggested 'Father'.

"Why? Oh!" Al suddenly remembered he had seen and opened the gate before.

Al put the stone on the ground and clapped his hands without the gloves. Stone figures suddenly protruded out of the ground and attacked 'Father' and Envy. Al took the opportunity to pocket the stone and ran for his life.

"I just know it's too good to be true to get someone to open the gate, Father." Envy said as he kicked off the figures, but there were too many as Al had used the stone to intensified the effect. "Cunning little brat!" scolded Envy.

'Father' sighed: "This boy truly has seen and opened the gate, Envy. Besides, his body has been staying in the gate before for years. He is too precious to be lost." Without any movement, he crushed all the stone figures around him like sand.

Envy turned into his monster form and ran after Al: "I'll get him back, father!"

Al panted heavily as he ran along the dark passageway. He looked back to see a lizard like creature running after him. On its body were heads of various sizes, which cried out on their own.

"_Mama, where's mama?"_

"_Give my child back to me!"_

"_Where am I? I want to live! I don't want to die!"_

The voices itself was unnerving.

The main head of the creature called out in Envy's voice: "Heeheehee, come back here, Armor-boy, we can talk this over!"

"First thing, I'm no longer a suit of armor!" panted Al, trying to keep his sanity at the sight of the monster darting behind him: "Secondly, I'll not stop, so save your breath!" He clapped his hand and hit the wall, but his alchemy was malfunctioning again. "Damnit!" Al spat irritated. Just then, some chimeras that were obstructing Al's path flew on top of Envy, followed by a travelling force along the wall, causing it to crumple and fall over Envy and the chimeras.

"Run ahead, Alphonse." Scar said as he suddenly appeared besides him with Lust and Winry: "I'll stop him."

"You're frightening me out of my wits, Al!" screamed Winry: "Where's Ed?"

"Envy has disguised as nii-san to lure me here." Al explained: "Look, we need to get out of here before that 'Father' figure and Envy catch up."

Winry turned to the front to see chimeras emerging out of their hiding places and started attacking them. Some were enormous like elephants, completed with fangs of tigers while others protruded more than one head from unthinkable areas of their bodies. At the same time, Envy climbed out of the debris and moved swiftly towards them.

* * *

Out in the open, Ed faced off with Godoa while Sophie and Chang Mei fought Leonardo. Ran Fan fought with Triffany. Armony was not trained in either alchemy or combate so she had to stay off from the fighting ground.

"CHANG MEI!" yelled Ed: "You go ahead and help Al! We'll deal with these people!"

"Alright, bean-sized brat!" Chang Mei shouted back and ran off before Ed retorted back in protest. But in his anxiety for Al and Winry's safety, he did not hear Chang Mei's words.

"Why are you attacking us for?" Sophie demanded as she fought with Leonardo: "Who do you want to revive this time?"

"No one." Leonardo grinned: "We're just bored." He fired ice along the ground, attacking Sophie and Ed at the same time.

"I think it must be something to do with Al-kun or Winry-san," Armony said from the safety of a building: "Why do you want them for?" She yelped as Triffany suddenly scooped down at her. Ran Fan fought her off: "Armony, are you alright?" Armony nodded shakingly.

"Damnit, you people are really irritating!" snarled Ed and he suddenly ran towards the direction which Ran Fan had pointed earlier. Sophie, Ran Fan and Armony followed suit. Godoa banged the ground, causing cracks to form after them. They yelled as they fell through the cracks.

"Oops," Godoa said: "I think I did something wrong."

"You're giving them a short-cut, Godoa." Triffany said.

"Well, that's not our business. I believe they can handle these people." Leonardo said.

* * *

In the subway passage, Lust was fighting with Envy.

"Hi, Lust, I can't imagine seeing you here again and moreover, fighting against me!" grinned monster!Envy: "You better be careful not to get hurt, I know you are no longer a homunculus anymore."

"Looks like you've noticed that I do not have that tattoo on my body, don't you?" smiled Lust who was fighting using her glove that protruded long blades.

"Don't worry. Father has already found a replacement for your position." Envy smirked.

"Let me guess. The Xing emperor is Pride, King Bradley is Wrath, Sloth is still working somewhere underground, Glutton is still dead, Greed is Yao Ling, am I correct?" Lust said: "Oh, and a new Lust is lurking somewhere else."

"You've done your homework well, Lust." Envy praised: "It's a pity you've turned into a human being."

"W-what? King Bradley is Wrath?!" Al exclaimed on the other side as he fought with the chimeras using physical strength, thinking that Lust was referring Wrath as the same kid who was currently child of his sensei.

"In the terms of the seven sins, she's not referring to the kid Wrath you've known." Scar said as he assisted Winry out of some difficult position by killing the chimeras that attacked her.

Winry glared: "Don't expect me to forgive you because of that."

"Don't worry, I don't want your forgiveness." Scar said coldly and looked up. The chimeras were increasing in number as time passed.

"How is it getting on, Envy?" came 'Father''s voice from behind.

"Oh dear." Al groaned inwardly and pressed back to back with Scar: "Scar-san, sorry to bother you, but can you help me get Winry out of here first?"

"After what that man has done to my clan and after we are being stuck in this position?" Scar asked: "You are asking for the impossible, Alphonse."

'Father' glanced around and stone hands flew from the ground hitting Lust from Envy and Scar into the hungry chimeras. Winry screamed as a stone pole stabbed into her waist.

"WINRY!!" Al screamed and pulled her into his embrace. She opened her eyes weakly: "Get out of here, Al." Other side, Al could see Scar and Lust were struggling by killing the approaching chimeras, but Al knew their endurance level was reaching a limit due to blood loss and wounds.

"He won't hurt me because he needs me to help him with something!" Al cried: "Nii-san needs you. Do you know, he has not been marry with anyone when we were staying in the other world. He must have loved you too much to remain single for years!"

"Really?" Winry asked, bewildered. She had never asked them about their life in the other world before ever since their return and it was the first time Al told her about Ed's life over the other side. She felt her vision blurred and passed out.

"Winry!" Al shook her and turned to 'Father': "Let them go, I'll go back with you!"

"I suggest we take all of them back, father." Envy said as he reverted back to his human form: "Before this brat tries some other tricks again."

A circle of knives stabbed between the walls dividing 'Father' and Envy from Al and the rest. A line of force shot along the ground, igniting the rocks to collapse on them.

"Alphonse-sama, are you alright? ... Xiao Mei!" Chang Mei asked and exclaimed at the sight of her little panda as she ran towards them. Xiao Mei leaped from Al's shoulder onto Chang Mei's in joy.

"Winry is hurt!" Al said and carried her on his back.

"Are you alright, Scar-san?" Chang Mei asked as she assisted him and Lust to eliminate the surviving chimeras.

"Thanks, now we're even." smiled Lust. They started running off as 'Father' blew up the obstructing rocks behind them. More chimeras emerged along the subway.

"Can we make it alive?" Chang Mei asked fearfully.

"We will. Thanks, Mei-chan." Al said anxiously. He could feel Winry's blood dripping down his back.

A few more chimeras were crushed in front of them.

"AL, ARE YOU THERE?!" came Ed's voice.

"NII-SAN!" Al cried: "WINRY IS HURT!"

"What?!" retorted Ed. Behind him followed Sophie and Armony. Ran Fan had vanished elsewhere after they fell into the underground subway.

Al looked back. 'Father' and Envy did not seen to catch up with them.

"Is that alright, father?" Envy asked as he watched their preys climbing out of the tunnels.

"We can do that later." 'Father' said: "There's always time."

* * *

Scar and Lust had parted with Ed and the rest shortly after they left the subway. In the hospital, Cony was helping healing Winry using her alchemy.

"Will she be alright?" Ed asked anxiously in the room for the 100th times.

"If you leave me alone to heal her, she will." Cony replied irritated: "And please get out before the doctors and nurses found us sneaking into the room without their permission."

"Ed, Al has told me all about it. Is it true that you have been staying single throughout the time when you were on the other world?" Winry asked weakly with a smile.

"Hm, ah, well... It's true, but..." Ed stammered awkwardly, scratching his head.

"It's alright, I'll understand." Winry closed her eyes to rest. There was a satisfied smile on her lips.

"Whom have you been facing?" asked Maria as she ran outside the ward with Falman.

"Envy and his father with the few people you've fought in the battle." Sophie said, helping to look out for the medical people who might be passing by Winry's ward so that Cony could reduce the extent of Winry's wound before it was too late. Sophie turned to look at Armony who overheard Ed and Winry's conversation in the ward. There were tears in her eyes.

Seeing that Winry was in stable condition, Al decided to leave them alone and walked off. Chang Mei followed closely behind him. Shortly after Al and Chang Mei left, Ed ran out of the room to grab Falman's uniform: "Do you know where Colonel Mustang is? I need to talk to him! It's urgent!"

"Alright, I'll give you his home number." Falman pulled out his notebook and pen.

"Hurry! It's life and death matter!" rushed Ed.

Out on the street, Chang Mei asked: "Where are you going?"

"I'm worried for Ran Fan. Will she be alright?" Al asked distractedly.

"You aren't feeling depressed because of Winry-san's injury, are you?" Chang Mei asked.

"Hm, I will be lying if I said no." Al said, dejected: "She was injured because of my carelessness after all."

"You do loved Winry-san, don't you?" pressed Chang Mei.

"I did wish she could be my bride when I was younger, but not anymore, not when she's treating me like her younger brother." Al sighed: "I just hope she'll be happy with nii-san."

He looked back to see Chang Mei splashing her tears like a fountain: "Don't act so emotional. It's not like some romance storyline you've probably read!"

"Can't I vent my emotion?" Chang Mei protested. Her Xiao Mei hopped onto her shoulder showing the same expression.

The battle site had been condoned by the military when they reached there. Chunks of rocks protruded from the ground like statues and severed corpses of all kinds littered the scene.

"Sorry, kids, this place is out of bound." An officer said.

"Is there any corpse found or any injured person?" Al asked: "I'm a state alchemist." He showed his pocket watch.

"Not in the meantime. We only found corpses of chimeras. No human being is found, unless you include human skulls which had been there since long time ago." An officer said.

"Oh." Al said.

"Let's go." Chang Mei pulled his sleeve.

At an area, they caught sight of Scar and Lust. Remembering Lust's words, Chang Mei suddenly ran up to them: "Are you all still investigating the homunculus matter?" Scar nodded.

"Can I join in too?" She beamed happily when Lust looked at Scar and smiled warmly with a nod.

"No problem."

"See you around next time, Alphonse-sama!" Chang Mei waved. Al waved back. He watched till the three figures disappeared into the darkness, then he made his way towards the hospital where Winry was sent. Somehow, he had a strange sense of loss after having gone through several battles along side with Chang Mei during the journey.

"Got to pull myself together, what am I thinking now?" Al hit his own head. Haze started to obscure the early winter street as he made his way back to the hospital. Someone was standing in the haze, apparently, waiting for him. Al looked up in surprise.

It was Frank Archer. He gave a mysterious smile and raised his fingers. Long lance-like blades began to grow from his hands like roots. Before Al could react, Archer swept towards him in the speed of lightning. There was a sickened slashing sound of cloth and flesh as a high scream rose in the cold air.

Warm blood criss-crossed the gaps between the floor tiles, turning the cement red. Under the soft lonely light, a silhouette of the tall man knelt down to scoop the unconscious boy into his arms and kissed him tenderly on his forehead.

"Goodnight, Soul Alchemist."

* * *

**TBC

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**

**AUTHOR NOTE:**

To be honest, I don't like writing about a group of youngsters walking and having adventures together, it's boring me. Got to find ways to spilt them up..Grrr...yawn... Frankly speaking, I completely suck in romance fic. Honestly, my motivation to continue this fic is diminishing since no one bother to review my most recent chap, so my current aim is to end this fic soonest possible, hopefully before mid February. I've already ended my YnM and Weiss incompleted and I don't want to see this fic ends up in the same fate.

**MANGA SPOILER:**

The 'Father' figure had ability to do alchemy without clapping his hands or using transmutation circle in the manga. Moreover, he could freeze Ed and Al's alchemy ability. Only Scar and Chang Mei were not affected because they learnt different types of alchemy from the Elric brothers. In the manga, 'Father' was the one who initiated Envy to create the tension between Ishbal and Amestris. As a result, most of Scar's clan people were eliminated in the cleanse operation.

Anime!Sloth and Manga!Sloth are 2 completely different people. King Bradley was Wrath in manga while he was Pride in anime. Anime!Wrath did not exist in the manga at all.

Winry's parents were killed by Scar in manga while in anime; they were killed by Roy Mustang. In this fic, I'll follow the manga content.


	8. The Man with Two Souls

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga/games, so pls don't sue me!

**WARNING:** FMA anime, manga & game spoilers! Implied rape

**Rating:** PG-13 because of the earlier part of this chapter

**Character:** Ed, Al, Envy, Roy, Riza, Armstrong, Archer, Yao Ling, 'Father', Manga!Sloth, Hughes

**AU:** There is no made-up character in this fic though there's a lot of characters crossover for FMA manga/anime/games. I'm getting tired of doing multi-chap fanfic. Hope my interest won't extinguish before I complete this fic. Sigh...

**Refer to image of FMA Manga/game casts at: **http:(slash slash)i14(dot)photobucket(dot)com(slash)albums(slash)a333(slash)lysergkun(slash)othercast(dot)jpg

* * *

Hi Renneh: I'm going to be cruel to Al… kukukuku…. Arigato, hope u'll like my coming chaps… Have to increase the rating of my fanfic because of Archer x Al matter….

Hi Stripe: Erm.. I'm flattered… Frankly, my writing is not really fantastic, especially when I know I can do better, but I am tired, instead of leaving it incomplete, my priority right now is to end it asap before I lose my interest in continuing the fic. Sigh… Glad u like my fanfic ideas. I have been watching FMA anime and reading its manga. I feel it'll be interesting if the 2 verses merge together, so this fic is created. If only there's more fanfics with such combined verses.

Hi Goldencave: I'll try to update as fast as possible, coz I do not want to stop before I lose my interest… arigato, glad u like my plot (smile)

* * *

**Chapter 08: Man with Two Souls**

In an unknown dark basement, Al struggled fruitlessly from the webs of confinement that pulled his limbs in spread eagle manner. Blood tricked down his forehead where he had been accidentally scratched during the fight. He could still taste the copper in his blood as it seeped through his lips and onto his tongue. He glared at the man who was standing before him. With the recently changed red eyes and long black lances tracing down his hand, the man did not look human anymore. Al had lost his red coat, most likely removed by his captive while Al was still unconscious. Before him, his captive smiled and kept flicking his lance-like weapon in and out of his fingers like what Lust used to do in the past.

"You... you are the replaced Lust." Al said, almost exhaustedly. He knew the man had been eyeing him for a long time and his newly instilled power only made Al's situation worse.

"I'm glad you get the point, it'll save me efforts to explain." Frank Archer grinned darkly. He walked towards Al and pulled off the boy's hair band, letting the boy's long blond hair fell gracefully over his shoulder so that the gentle alchemist looked more feminine than usual.

Al suddenly felt coolness on his flesh as Archer abruptly pulled the front of his shirt and torn it down with his blade-like fingers. Archer kissed Al on the side of his neck almost lovingly, taking in the sweet essence in Al's long blond hair. Withdrawing his lances, Archer ran his cold fingers up and down Al's smooth bare skin and finally settled himself on the boy's belt. Al felt himself trembling despite himself. He did not like the way the man was eyeing him greedily as though he was a lamb waiting to be eaten by a wolf. He could feel Archer closing the distance between them and whispered softly into his ears: "Has anyone told you how beautiful you are? I think not. Until you are handed to 'Father', Alphonse Elric, you are mine."

* * *

Bang! Bang! Bang! 

Roy almost jumped on his sofa to open the door before Ed could tear down his door with his automail arm in the middle of the night.

"We've received information that Xing emperor could be a homunculus!" Ed informed Roy before his foot stepped into the living room.

"Where did you get the news from?" asked Roy suspiciously.

"Chang Mei and Ran Fan from Xing. Chang Mei had overheard her emperor's conversation with the creator of Homunculus and we were attacked the moment we reached here a few hours ago." Ed suddenly jumped: "I almost forgot about Al!" He ran to use Roy's phone.

"Hey!" protested Roy. Ed's face turned pale as he talked over the phone, probably with Wrath or Izumi.

"Al has not returned home yet. Damnit, I should have stopped him from walking out with Chang Mei!" Ed growled.

"Why don't we see if he returns to work tomorrow morning?" suggested Roy, alarmed by Ed's anxiety: "Was anyone after him?"

"Ah, that homunculus head had attempted to abduct him earlier. I hope I'm just been over-sensitive, but I have a bad feeling about this." Ed said, resting his forehead against his fist.

* * *

In the darkness of the subway, 'Father' frowned severely as Archer carried the injured and unconscious Al to him. Apart from the tattered shirt, there were bruises, slashes and bites all over his body. Al's hair band was missing and his long blond hair was streaked with blood.

"I did not ask you to hurt him." said 'Father' disapprovingly.

"He was resisting me, Father." said Archer with mocked seriousness: "I had difficulty restraining him."

"Raping the kid more likely." muttered Envy, observing the locations of the slashes and bruises on Al.

"I need 2 days to take this boy where no one can distract me. Envy, I want you to take over his place for a couple of days." commanded 'Father'. His frown deepened as he searched Al's pockets. The Philosopher's Stone was not there.

Archer quickly explained: "I did not see anything when I searched the kid, Father."

'Father' searched Archer in his eyes and turned to the approaching King Bradley and added: "I want you to assist Sloth finding the stone. I don't have enough time to search now."

"Yes, Father." Envy and King Bradley said. Envy was smiling and frowning at the same time.

"What is it, Envy?" asked King Bradley.

"Just thinking that I'm going to get some fun out of this task." grinned Envy.

* * *

Time crawled like a snail as dawn finally came. Without a wink of sleep, Roy and Ed made their way back to the office.

"You look terrible, Ed, where have you been? And why are you coming with Colonel Roy? Armony and Winry were worried for you!" Sophie called as Ed rushed past her to check Archer's department. Al was not there.

"Did you see Al?" Ed asked her.

"Are you looking for me?" The bored voice of Al called behind him.

"Do you have a nice break, Al?" Cony asked as she passed him and glanced at Ed questioning.

"Ah? Oh, yeah." Al nodded and walked hastily to his department.

"Al!" Ed pulled him back: "Where have you been last night? We were all worried sick!"

"Hm, I was having a walk with Chang Mei and had a long talk." Al said uneasily.

"Oh, alright. Let me know if Archer disturbs you, I heard he's back to office." Ed said, petting Al lightly on his shoulder.

"Ok." Al hurried off. Behind, Ed looked at him suspiciously. Sophie and Cony looked from him to Al and back again in confusion. Ed shook his head and walked off.

Cony looked at Sophie and shrugged: "Let's get back to work."

"Stop distracting me with that grins, Envy!" snarled Archer under his breath as Al!Envy attempted to fall onto his lap the seventh times: "You'll arouse suspicion in the office!"

"Hah! I bet you'll never say that if the real brat is pestering you like what I'm doing right now." grinned Envy!Al.

Archer growled and grabbed Envy!Al by his shoulder.

"What are you doing, Colonel?" Armstrong who suddenly appeared from a corner, asked.

"Hm, just giving him a friendly pet, that's all." laughed Archer uneasily, letting go Envy!Al instantly.

"Alright. Do let me know if you have any problem, Alphonse." Armstrong said.

"Will do." Envy!Al said, suppressing his laughter.

Behind the door, Ed was leaning against the wall in deep concentration.

* * *

Strong desert wind blew as a tall man in white robe held a 13-year-old alchemist close to his chest in a truck. Al rocked uneasily and opened his eyes weakly. For a moment, he thought he was lying in his father's arms just like the time many years ago back in his hometown with his mother and elder brother. He leant closer to the warm, ignoring the puzzling uneasiness gnawing inside him. His head was almost as heavy as lead and the hot air made him feel dull.

"Where are we going?" Al asked dryly.

"To Xing." said 'Father' shortly.

Al nodded numbly and slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

An urgent telegraph reached the Fuhrer. Informers reported Creata and Areugo were declaring war on Amestris on the recent annihilation of Drachma. The two armies would attack in two days' time unless Amestris opened up all its military research labs for their inspection.

"This is outrageous!" stormed one senior council member at the meeting.

"I suggest giving in to their request, for we have nothing to hide." Hughes proposed: "It's better than dragging innocent people into wars."

"I disagree," Archer said: "Who knows what they'll do the moment their representatives enter our labs? We'll be showing cowardly if we give in!"

"Let the council vote to decide." Armstrong Fuhrer said, rubbing his temple exhaustedly. The recent chaos were testing his endurance limit as he had spent sleepless nights, holding meetings and negotiations with presidents of the other two states over the investigation for the sudden destruction of Drachma.

Roy could not suppress his satisfactory when Hughes' suggestion was approved. Archer glared: 'We'll see about that."

Archer's life back to office was not smooth either as unexpected people kept running in without warning whenever Envy!Al was trying to discuss things with him. Firstly, It was Armstrong, the sequence was followed by Roy, Hughes, Riza, Falman, Danny, Maria, Ed, Sophie and Cony.

"Can't you leave us in peace so that I can discuss work matters with him?" demanded Archer as Riza popped into his office the 4th times.

"Sorry, Colonel Archer, I need to pass something to him." said Riza as she closed the door behind her.

"Aren't you being a bit too sensitive? No one is watching us!" Envy!Al said cheekily.

Behind him, Cony stepped into the office and apologised for entering the wrong department for the fourth time on the same day.

* * *

Al suddenly woke up to find himself on a large soft bed in an unfamiliar room with Xingness decoration. His head ached as he struggled up the bed. In a spilt of a second, he wondered why the surrounding did not seem right for him. Instead of his usual red coat and black attire, he was dressed in Xingness silk robe and his long hair had been washed and combed. He clapped his hands. His alchemy was not working again.

Running his hand over his hair, Al tried to recall the last thing he had went through before he lost his consciousness. Then, he remembered. Burying his head against his lap, flashes of Archer's assaults returned to his mind.

'That man, I'll get even with him sooner or later.' Al grinded his teeth, he had never felt so contaminated in his life before.

'No, I must stay calm, if I don't pick myself up, I'll never be able to see nii-san again!' He grabbed his hair and tried to recap events that had happened before he had slipped into unconsciousness.

"Do you have a nice rest, Alphonse?" came 'Father's voice. Al glared silently. The man looked cleaner, though he was still dressed in the same white robe. After waiting for Al's reply without success, he sighed and reached to pet him. Al edged away from his touch. Since Archer was now a homunculus, he had probably attacked Al under 'Father's command.

"I won't forget how you abduct me here, Mister." Al said coldly.

The rest of the day passed meaninglessly as Al was left alone with his alchemy ability still withdrawn. He started observing the patterns of the guards entering the room to give him his meals and clearing the utensils. The soldiers let their guard down when Al appeared weak and small in the large bed. While they were not looking, Al hit them unconscious and ran out of the room.

"How big can this place be?" thought Al in awe and frustration as he passed endless corridors and rooms secretly and hid whenever a group soldiers marched by. Just then, a general appeared by his side. Al quickly ducked into a room and found himself face to face with a young man with black ponytail and narrow eyes in his bathing pool.

"I..I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bang in like that." Al apologised quickly.

"Who are you?" The man blinked in surprise.

"I'm a representative from Amestris and I kind of lost my way when I went to a restroom." Al lied: "Do you know the way to the main entrance? I'm meeting my guide there."

"Alright, I'll draw you a map." sighed the young man who put a towel round his waist as he stepped out of the pool: "You know, I've never seen such a pretty maiden from Amestris before." He added as he looked at Al's large eyes, fair complexion, long blond flowing hair and his small frame within the silky light colour Xingness attire, while he took note of Al's high-pitch tone.

"That's rude! I'm a boy!" exclaimed Al: "By the way, how do I address you?"

"Call me Yao Ling or Ling if you like." The man said while he scribbled directions on a piece of paper.

'Strange, I think I've heard this name before.' Al thought as he left the room, making his way according to the drawing. There were many crisscross and smudges all over the paper, making identifying the lines almost impossible. Al strained his eyes as he climbed countless staircases and crossed several corridors and reached a large door. The paper indicated it as the main entrance. Al opened it.

To his surprise, 'Father' was talking to a man in royal robe within the room. They gave him a surprise look. Al's jaws fell.

Within minutes, Al was escorted back to his own room by several tall soldiers who were almost twice his height. Al was fuming and wondering if he had misunderstood the paper till he recalled Lust's words about a person named Yao Ling who had took over 'Greed's identity.

"To think I've been dumb enough to ask a homunculus for help!" Al cried in the room, outraged.

In the other room, Greed!Yao Ling was laughing his head off over Al's stupidity. Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." said Greed!Yao Ling.

Ran Fan entered the room. "Young Master, is it true that Alphonse Elric from Amestris is here?"

"Yes." replied Greed!Yao Ling: "Don't worry, he is safe for time being as long as the stone is not obtained."

"Is Young Master still communicating with you?" asked Ran Fan suddenly.

Greed!Yao Ling chose to remain silence. Ran Fan remained expressionless as she bowed and left the room, closing the door behind her. The moment she left the room, Yao Ling suddenly clumped his head.

"No, this body is still mine, you can't win me." Yao Ling growled almost to himself.

* * *

"I need to talk to you." Ed put his arm on Envy!Al's shoulder.

'What is it, Sh-I mean, nii-san?" Envy!Al asked, nervously. He had been trying to avoid Ed as time passed, fearing he might give himself away. Already within the confine of Winry's apartment, Ed was staring at him more than usual.

'Damn, when is Father allowing me to get out of this position? It's so irritating!' thought Envy as Ed pulled him into a room. Envy's heart skipped a beat as he saw the door automatically sealed itself after it was closed. Inside the room, Roy was sitting, deep in thoughts.

"Let me get this straight, Envy." Roy said coldly: "Where are you people hiding Alphonse?"

Envy's mouth went dry: "W..what are you talking about? I..I don't get it."

"Spit it out! We already suspect it the first day you've stepped into the office, Envy." snapped Ed angrily: "That's why we have been taking turns monitoring you. The real Al will never get close to Archer if he could help it!"

"Oh, well, if that's the case.." Envy said as he revealed his true form: "I don't think you all can catch me!" He grinned.

Ed roared and transmuted his automailed arm into a blade, attacking him: "Return Al to me NOW!"

"That kid's probably far far away from here now, shorty!" Envy laughed, turned into a rat and tried to scamper away.

Roy sent fire blocking his path: "You are not going anywhere else unless you tell us, Homunculus!"

"How dare... how dare you call me SHORTY???!!!!" roared Ed and he transmuted a large fist banging onto rat!Envy.

* * *

"Creata and Areugo have called back their attempts to attack Amestris, Father." King Bradley said over the telephone in an office: "Sloth does not have any news of the stone at this moment. I can ask some soldiers to transmute the people of either Creata or Areugo if you like, but they are highly alert of any alchemy activity recently, unlike Drachma. Yes, hm, I understand."

Outside the room, an outline of a person was listening to his conversation.

_In Amestris_

Within the privacy of his office, Archer took a red translucent stone from his drawer and started playing with it absent-mindedly, deep in thoughts about the failed attempt to rouse wars on Creata and Areugo. He had taken it from Al when the boy was unconscious.

An officer who was strolling along the corridor was struck unconscious and dragged into a dark corner. His uniform was seized and his captive stepped out into the open, pulling down his military cap. He smiled mysteriously as he marched confidently towards Frank Archer's office.

Deep in the underground tunnel, a large figure was prowling around, listening to the information from various departments. He tapped a wire and listened lazily.

"Father, Sloth here… Hmmm, work? Oh… Ok……."

* * *

**TBC

* * *

**

**AU:** I'm not too sure about Sloth's reaction whenever he receives a mission as manga!Sloth has not made his complete appearance when I first wrote this chapter. He might be a little out of character.


	9. The Attack

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any copyright to plots and characters from Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga/games, so pls don't sue me!

**AU:** There is no made-up character in this fic though there's a lot of characters crossover for FMA manga/anime/games.

**Refer to image of FMA Manga/game casts at:** http:(slash slash)i14(dot)photobucket(dot)com(slash)albums(slash)a333(slash)lysergkun(slash)othercast(dot)jpg

* * *

Hi Renneh: In manga, 'Father' was a bastard figure, so he's not expected to be portrayed as a nice person in my fanfic… I'm thinking of changing my earlier draft so it may take quite some time for my next update. Hope u'll like this chapter….(smile)

Hi OintmentJar: I like this type of merged fic too, but I'm currently occupied with my real life matters… So I was wondering if I can rush off this fic asap before I lose all my interest like my previous few fics. Will try to lengthen my existing draft, but it'll take me longer time to update. Hope u won't mind.. glad u like my fic, I almost thought this fic is a goner. (sniff) Btw, Archer will not come to a good end…. I promise (smirk)

* * *

**Chapter 09: Attack**

Ed slapped his hand onto his face as he climbed out of the debris from the collapse wall. Roy soon regained his alertness as he scowled to himself: "I can't believe someone can bring down the wall and knock us inside out within seconds!"

"Colonel, are you alright?" called Riza, Danny and Falman as they rushed and climbed through the large hole on the walls.

"Who's that big creature who crushed into the office, Ed?" asked Sophie who followed into the office: "Cony, Lt Hughes and Major Armstrong have gone after them."

Ed did not answer her, but was glaring heatedly at the big hole.

"Damnit, they are dangerous!" Roy exclaimed angrily and rushed out of the hole. Riza pulled him back. "Don't stop me, First Lt!" snapped Roy.

"You need a vehicle to go after them, Colonel." Riza said and pointed to a waiting vehicle manned by Maria Ross.

Archer was shocked to see smoke and fire seeping into his office. Before he could storm out, a tall figure stepped in.

"Mustang?" Archer questioned in disbelief.

"Wrong answer, Mr Frank Archer." The deep voice of Zerugiu said: "I'll be handling over the Philosopher's stone if I were you for we have you thoroughly cornered. There's no one strong enough in the headquarter to help you now."

"Are you working under Father?" asked Archer calmly: "Or do you have the intention to betray him to obtain the stone yourself?"

"That's not your business to ask, Archer." Zerugiu said and flew at Archer.

Archer revealed his lance-like blades and attacked Zerugiu like lightning. Zerugiu's eyes widened in shock.

* * *

Armony was glad to see Winry moving towards full recovery and was currently able to return home to rest. Wrath had recently started alchemy training under Izumi. The sight of Izumi guiding Wrath in alchemy within the house reminded her of the old times when Ed taught her alchemy. She could not bear to see the sight and preferred to accompany Winry in her ward. On the day of her discharge, Armony accompanied Winry on her way home.

"Armony-san, Winry-san!" cried a familiar voice as Chang Mei ran up to them. Xiao Mei as usual was sitting on her shoulder like an obedient cat: "How are you both getting on? I'm going back to Xing later today, so I'm thinking of bidding you farewell before I go. Have you been seeing Alphonse-sama? Ever since my last farewell to him, I can't see him anywhere."

"You're going back to Xing despite your emperor's a homunculus?" Winry exclaimed in disbelief.

"Scar-san and Lust-san are going with me, so I've nothing to fear. Besides, Ran Fan seems to have forgotten me." Chang Mei chipped: "Thank you for taking care of me during that time. Farewell!"

Winry and Armony looked on as the little girl ran off towards the tall figure of Lust who was waiting for her.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" asked Armony.

"They will." Winry said.

* * *

Al sat restlessly on the bed and tested his alchemy again. He sighed, wondering how long will 'Father' removed the bind he had set around the palace that was restricting his alchemy ability for days.

'Looks like I'll have to use the traditional method.' Al thought and pulled out a pin he had found in the room the day before. Twisting its end, he proceeded to poke the keyhole. He had been waiting for this day ever since he felt himself fully recovered from his illness and injuries. He squeaked quietly in delight as the lock clicked and the door opened under his touch.

"Where are you going, little boy?" A general who was standing guard outside the door boomed and grabbed Al's arm. Al dodged and tripped the man down. He ran as fast as he could away from the pursuing guards. A guard agilely swung his leg, tripped Al onto the floor and drew his sword across Al's neck before he could get up from the ground.

A blade flew to block his movement easily as a masked lady appeared and grabbed Al before the boy could register what was going on.

"Shhh, it's me." The voice of Ran Fan whispered in his ears as she tried to push the distance between them from the guards as much as possible: "I'm going to get you out of here. Trust me."

"Why?" Al looked at her in surprise. He could feel the young lady smiled even though he could not see her face through the mask.

"Young Master's approval." She said shortly as she dragged him behind a dark cellar, leading to the underground tunnel of the palace.

"And you trust him? What is he sche… , sorry, I mean, planning?" Al whispered: "He's a Homunculus, remember?"

"I don't know." Ran Fan said softly as she led Al through the tunnel until sunlight greeted them from its end. "But sometimes, I feel he is my Young Master himself."

* * *

"This is totally insane." grunted Roy as their vehicle pursued the running Sloth who was carrying Envy on his back across the street of the Central.

"They're not getting anyway," said Riza as she pulled out her pistol. Roy ducked to other window and shot his flames at the escaping figures while Maria Ross kept to her focus as she drove the car. Ed was stuck between Roy and Riza in the back seat. Growling, he transmuted a hole on the car ceiling and climbed out of the car.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING, FULLMETAL??!!" Roy yelled as the younger alchemist leaped towards the running homunculi.

"RETURN AL TO ME NOW!!!" roared Ed furiously as he managed to grab a fistful of Envy's hair.

"He's crazy!" gasped Cony from the other vehicle manned by Hughes.

"Get your dirty hands away from me, Midget!" screamed Envy, trying to kick away Ed from his face. Within a minute, Ed had rained countless blows on Envy's face. Sloth moved faster, banging against any wall he could find, hoping to shake him off, but the agitated alchemist refused to get off.

Several passing-bys screamed as they tried to dodge the passing homunculi and the flying debris from the hit buildings.

"Isn't that Ed?" Armony pointed as she and Winry saw Ed standing over the running homunculi and two pursuing cars manned by Roy and the rest.

"YOUR BABY BROTHER IS NOT WITH US NOW, IDOIT! NOW GET OFF FROM ME!" screamed Envy who had to recover himself many times from Ed's insane blows.

From afar, there was a big explosion in the direction of the military headquarter. Roy did not have to look to know something bad had happened.

"Let's go back to the headquarter. Major, I need your help to assist Fullmetal if necessary."

"No problem." Armstrong said and continued his pursue after Ed and the homunculi while Maria Ross reversed the vehicle towards the other direction.

* * *

The headquarter was in flames when Roy, Sophie, Riza and Maria Ross rushed to the site.

"What's going on here?" gasped Maria in shock. There were a few injured soldiers dragged out by their fellow colleagues and a few were probably still fighting or trapped inside.

"What happened?" Sophie asked an injured soldier.

"I think there's some fighting going on inside. The place just went up in flame for no reason and I think I've heard Colonel Archer battling with someone."

"There's something weird with Colonel Archer!" Another injured soldier said: "He has long lance-like weapons on his fingers. One officer was slashed to death when he tried to help him from a man who was blowing fire."

"You look after the rest, I'll go and take a look." Roy insisted and rushed into the burning building. Sophie made a quick thinking and ran after him.

Inside the office, Archer's eyes reddened with excitement as he grinned, increasing his speed faster and faster. "You are no match for me." His lance shot and stabbed straight into Zerugiu's throat, despite several burnts on his body which healed almost instantly: "Because I can revive countless times!"

"Homunculus... I... should have known better..." Zerugiu gave his last tragic smile before he collapsed backwards, dead. Archer's grin faltered as he saw Roy Mustang and Sophie came into view behind the tall falling figure of Zerugiu.

"He..he is a homunculus..." Sophie pointed in shock.

"Get out of here, I'll deal with him." Roy said, flicking his gloves: "Fullmetal and Major must know about this matter."

But Frank Archer had already started shooting his lance at the running girl. Roy dived and blocked it in the nick of time with raising wall and pushing Sophie away at the same time. As she fell onto the floor, something red and shiny came into her view. She grabbed it and ran off.

Realisation dawned onto Archer that he had dropped the Philosopher's stone during the fight and the girl had taken it. He roared in anger and ran after Sophie. Roy tried to burn him with his flames and was stabbed in his shoulder.

"COLONEL!" screamed Sophie.

"DON'T BOTHER ABOUT ME, JUST GO!!!" roared Roy Mustang.

Sophie screamed as a lance stabbed into her shoulder. Someone pulled her arm and she was tagged painfully behind. She could hear Roy's angry shout and Archer's frustrated growl as she left further and further away from them...

* * *

On the street, Armony and Winry ran towards the direction where Ed was wrestling with Envy and the confused Sloth. Armstrong and Cony ran to Ed's aid.

"LET ME GO, YOU MIDGET!!!!" screamed Envy.

"Fullmetal, we'll trap them and interrogate them for Alphonse's whereout." Armstrong said: "But first, I need space to trap them so that you will not be hurt."

"WHERE IS AL????!!!!" Ed roared, pulling Envy by his neck.

"Sloth, help me out of this!!!!" screamed Envy.

"What am I supposed to do? I've got you out of the room. You'll settle the mess yourself, I'm leaving." Sloth said and broke into a run. Armstrong activated stone hands to grab him, but he dug a hole into the ground and soon disappeared. Armstrong and Cony ran after him.

"Ed, what's going on?" exclaimed Winry as she ran towards Ed: "Did anything happen to Al?" Envy took the opportunity to slip out of Ed's hands and jumped away to breath properly.

"Hey, midget, your precious brother is now in Xing. Go and find him there if you dare!" He ran off.

"Hey, why do you tell us now after all these fighting?" Armony asked suspiciously.

"Xing huh? Then off to Xing I'll go!" panted Ed as he grinded his teeth. Shaking, he stood up and made his way to the house to pack up his things.

As Envy ran, he tagged a receiver in his ear: 'So the stone's now retrieved to be taken to Xing, huh? Right, I've told that midget where his precious brother is, he should be proceeding there anytime. I know, Father, I know what to do."

* * *

The market place of Xing was bustling with activities despite it was winter season and snow was falling softly as Al and the now maskless Ran Fan moved through the crowd, passing numerous stalls and shop houses. Al looked around in awe. He had almost forgotten the Eastern architectural buildings since his last trip in China when he was in the other world. Looking at those buildings brought him back memories of his time when he was gathering historical details during his China trip.

"The main gate should be at least 4 li from here." Ran Fan's words interrupted his thought. Her eyebrows suddenly tightened. "We've got company."

Before Al could react, strong wind of snow rushed through the marketplace, enveloping some passingbys into ice. Many people screamed and tried to duck into the safety of the buildings.

"Come with me!" Ran Fan hissed and pulled Al, following the sea of terrified people into one of the shelters.

"Not so fast, Miss!" A hoarse voice thundered as cracks zip zapped across the ground, separating them from the screaming people.

Al clapped his hands and transmuted a stony staff from the ground. Leaping before Ran Fan, he confronted Buffalo Bull Godoa and Shadow Leonardo.

"What do you want?" Al demanded.

"Hand over the Philosopher's Stone and we will not bother you again." Shadow Leonardo grinned. His smirk darkened. "Or else."

"It's not with us!" Al retorted angrily and swung his staff just in time to block Godoa's blow towards him. Leonardo swung more icy wind at them. Both Al and Ran Fan tried to duck his icy winds, but his winds moved faster and faster, closing more and more areas where the two youngsters could land. Coupled with Godoa's thunderous attack, there was hardly a space where they could rest their feet for more than a minute.

Someone moved like lightning towards Leonardo and sent a blow across his face. "Do you know it's very ungentlemanly to attack a lady?"

Leonardo glared into the face of Greed!Ling. "You!" He snarled angrily.

"Yes, me. Anymore trouble in my city and you'll regret for being born into this world." Greed!Ling said slowly. "The Philosopher's Stone is truly not with them, surely my word is trustworthy enough?"

Leonardo glowered at him for a second and without a second word, he disappeared amidst the slowing snowfall with Godoa.

Greed!Ling turned to look at Ran Fan and shrugged. Al could see light of admiration glimmering in Ran Fan's eyes as she looked at the Homunculus in front of her.

* * *

With increasing wind in the air, licks of flame rose in the air like fire dragons from the buildings.

From their resting area, Riza could not believe her eyes when several soldiers in Amestris uniform ambushed them and attacked the resting soldiers who had just escaped from the building. Several soldiers were killed instantly. Immediately with help from Maria Ross and several others, she rounded up the survivors and guided them to a safe area where they were shielded from the attacks.

"Is there a coup?" Falman asked in disbelief.

"Possible, there could be others who have been dissatisfied with the overthrown of the ex Fuhrer." Riza said: "There were others who prefer wars." She looked back to see some supposedly injured soldiers standing up and pointing their rifles at Maria Ross, Falman and herself. Several other 'injured' soldiers moved to shoot the genuine Amestris soldiers dead instantly.

In the burning office, Roy was stunned to see King Bradley appeared from nowhere with a small group of soldiers and abduct Sophie before his very eyes. Archer was agitated as he knew his chance to retrieve his Philosopher's stone has reduced if it fell into King Bradley's hand. Both of them ran after King Bradley and the rest. Roy was just in time to see them leaping into a waiting military car and drove off. Roy ducked behind the wall from the shooting bullets and made his way towards Riza's area based on leads left by her before she led the survivors away.

He was just in time to see the vehicle running towards the hiding area and was stunned to the ground to see Riza being dragged into King Bradley's vehicle at gun point and was drove off hastily. Just then, he caught sight of Archer and pulled him by his collar: "WHERE IS KING BRADLEY GOING??!!"

"He must have gone to Xing now." Archer said, feeling dejected over the loss of the stone and pulled off his collar from Roy Mustang's hand irritatedly: "And if you excuse me, I'm getting out of here!" With that, he ran off.

Just then, Sloth clambered out from the ground in front of Archer: "You... come with me.., Father wants ... see you."

"I have no more business with him and leave me alone!" Archer yelled, but was nevertheless dragged off.

"What has happened here?" Hughes exclaimed as he merged from the ground to see the burning headquarter with Armstrong and Cony after following Sloth.

"King Bradley has attacked the base, took the philosopher's stone and abducted a number of our people to Xing." Roy said: "You and Major stay here to settle the mess, I'm going off to Xing. Tell the top that I was missing during the attack."

Hughes sighed deeply and petted Roy on his shoulder: "Good luck, I don't know why, but I have a feeling that we might not be seeing each other again." Hughes reached out his hand.

Roy took it and shook hands with his friend with a weak smile.

* * *

**TBC**

* * *

**AU:** Sorry for the long update, coz I'm changing my original draft again. I've just killed off Zerugiu in this chap, still figuring who I'll be killing off next. Perhaps, Sophie or Lust or Triffany or Godoa. Err, I think I've protrayed Al like a little princess waiting to be rescued... Ah hahahaha... (uneasily) 


	10. Into Xing Empire

FMA Fanfic: The Lost Heaven (Chap 10)

Title: The Lost Heaven Disclaimer: I, of course, do not own any character or plot in FMA, or Al will turn into everyone s uke!

Characters appearance: Al, Ed, Roy, Riza, Scar, King Bradley, Yao Ling, Ran Fan, Sophie, Dante, Sloth, Archer, Lust, Chang Mei, Winry, Armony Warning: Characters' death AU: I'm going to rush next few chapters coz it's reaching the most difficult and irritating stage. Boy, I really want to complete this fic asap so that I can do up short chap fics if my interest with FMA is still around. I'm going to kill a lot of characters in this and next chapter... Kukukuku...

**Chapter 10: Into Xing Empire**

Ed stared as he watched Winry packed her stuffs into a luggage: "Hey, what's the meaning of this?"

"You're going to Xing, right? I'm going with you!" glared Winry.

"Look, I'm not going for vacation," Ed sweated.

"So what?" Winry cut in: "I m tired and I m not going to wait for you guys to return forever." She turned to Armony: "Sorry, Armony-chan, can you help me convert the message to Izumi when she returns?"

Armony sighed and nodded: "Take care of yourselves, guys." She looked at the direction of the burning buildings from afar: "The situation is pretty chaotic now." She looked at Ed. Abruptly, she ran up to hug him, burying her face in his shoulder: "Promise me that you both will return safely with Al, ok?"

"Ah.." Ed said, Winry looked away.

There was a car honk.

"Colonel!" Ed exclaimed as he caught sight of Roy Mustang in his civilian clothes.

"I believe you are going to Xing, right? This car can go through desert." The man said from the driver seat.

Ed and Winry made their way into the car. "How are you going to become a Fuhrer if you run off to other country in the time of chaos, Colonel?" Ed said.

"Looks like Lady Luck is not with me after all." Roy laughed and started the engine.  
_

On the Great Desert, Scar, Lust and Chang Mei were making their way through the sand storm. Amidst the sand, they caught sight of the huge figure of Sloth dragging a man on his back and was making his way like a buffalo.

"A homunculus." Lust said in low voice: "Correction, two homunculi."

"That man's a homunculus too? I remember he was a military officer." Scar said.

"He's probably the one who has replaced my position." Lust said: "Why don't we follow them? They don't seem to notice us."

The three figures moved further from the hurrying two figures and followed silently.  
_

Greed!Yao Ling was panicking. One moment, the 13 year old teenager was standing besides him, cuddling kittens and the next moment, he vanished into the crowd. He hoped to catch a glance of the blond boy among the black hair of the Xing people who were looking at the stocks on the street.

In a corner, Al pulled a cloth over his head and tried to move further away from Greed!Yao Ling. The search for the main Xing gate had been taking more than 2 days. During the day, they were wandering on the streets and Yao Ling did not fail to point out many interesting things sold in the market places. Al had a distinct suspicion that he was just humoring him to buy time for certain things. Quietly, he shifted into a quiet lane. He heard some car honks. There was very few cars in the city of Xing and many people looked at the source of the noise curiously. Al sneaked out cautiously and caught sight of a military truck, probably from Amestris. His heart gave a skip the moment his eyes caught sight of King Bradley, a few of his soldiers, Sophie and Riza on the vehicle.

A hand suddenly slapped on Al's shoulder: "Where are you going, Al?" It was Greed!Yao Ling.

"I've got something on!" Al said and rushed to transmute the ground before the truck so that it rose and stopped the vehicle.

King Bradley turned to see the source of the force and was shocked to see Al performing alchemy nearby. A few soldiers ran out to stop Al who took the chance to approach the vehicle. Riza took the opportunity to push Sophie and herself out of the vehicle together, still in bound. Al kicked a soldier and snatched his rifle to free Riza and Sophie from their bound. He hissed in pain as King Bradley's sword stabbed into his shoulder. Riza took Al's rifle and shot King Bradley. Sophie was confronted by Greed!Yao Ling and used her alchemy to fight him away. She rushed to Riza and Al's side. They were seriously outnumbered.

Most of the onlookers on the street had freed away to avoid being hurt unnecessary as some had been injured during the sudden confrontation. Several people screamed and some children were crying from fear.

The flower marks on Sophie's hands glowed. "I'll deal with them, you guys run off first. I'll follow up later." Sophie said and suddenly smiled gently: "Al, tell Ed that I'm happy with the times I am able to spend with him and tell him to stay happy with Winry." Before Al could say a word, her body suddenly surged with strong force, creating strong wind and sand up from the ground, sweeping many soldiers off their feet.

King Bradley ran through the force without difficulty and stabbed Sophie in her chest. Al screamed. Riza grabbed the boy and ran off amidst the confusion.

When the wind died down, Al and Riza were gone. King Bradley searched Sophie's body, but could not find the Philosopher's stone. Apparently, Sophie had handed the stone to Riza during the confusion. King Bradley glared angrily at Greed!Yao Ling: "Who ask you to take that kid out of the palace?"

"Well, you can't gurantee that boy will cook up some ways to run away all the time, right? Anyway, it's Father's instruction to tell me to humor him while waiting for the Philosopher's stone."

Lying on the ground, many past events flashed by Sophie's glassy eyes. Her first meeting with the Elric brothers when she was chased by Leondardo and his army... Her next encounter with the brothers when she suddenly found herself in the Central city of Amestris... Her times with the rest laughing and enjoying dinner in Rose's house...

"Everything's just a dream... It's just a cross-over from other dimension, little girl..." A strange voice said: "You are going home now..." Sophie felt a flash of white emptiness as King Bradley drove his sword into her throat...

From the top of a building, a masked figure was watching the running figures of Riza and Al. She took down the mask to reveal the sharp look of Ran Fan.  
_

Envy scratched his head in the main street of Xing as he looked back at the approaching figures of Sloth who still carried the struggling Archer. "Wow, you're fast, Sloth, that doesn't look like the usual you."

"He... is too... troublesome... want to end this work to sleep..." yawned Sloth.

"Release me, you big buffalo!" yelled the agitated Archer.

"Is anyone yelling my name?" The voice of Godoa called. Archer followed his voice and was aghasted to see the form of Camerlia, Triffany, Leonardo and Godoa approaching them.

Archer tensed, wondering inwardly if they knew about their leader's death and that he himself was the murderer and enemy.

'Are they allies?' wondered Scar as he watched them from afar. Lust and Chang Mei were standing close him. He could feel Chang Mei shivering slightly as she glanced at the gathering opponents.

Camerlia glanced at their hiding directions and said: "Are those three people hiding over there friends of yours?" Envy followed her direction and grinned: "Oh, it's that Isabal man, former Lust and that little Xingness girl!"

"I don't think it's a good time to fight them now." Lust whispered. Aloud, she waved: "Hi, we're just dropping by, no hard feelings I hope."

"Oh no, you're welcome to tour this place as long as you like." Envy smirked and to Scar and Lust's surprise, they let them moved on without a fight.

"I think I smell a rat." whispered Scar.  
_

"This is embarrassing, Colonel." Ed said the 12th times as he watched Roy Mustang struggling with the car engine in the middle of the Great desert.

"Let me try." Winry said and within a minute, the car roared to life again. Roy glared at the girl and said stiffly: "Thanks."

"Don't mention." Winry said coolly.

Within an hour, the vehicle entered the main gate of Xing.

"There sure are many vehicles passing through the gate today." A passingby stared and added to his friend, taking note of Ed and Winry's blond hair: "It's Amestrians again!"

"What?" Ed jumped out of the vehicle and approached the man: "Do you have any idea where the earlier Amestrians are?"

"There was a fight, it's horrible!" The man's friend said, still shivering as she thought of it: "An Amestrian girl was killed."

Ed echoed numbly: "An Amestrian girl was killed?"  
_

In the other part of the street, Al and Riza ducked as the soldiers under King Bradley moved among the crowd, looking for them. Just then, someone bumped into Riza and ran off hurriedly.

Riza touched her pocket and gasped: "The stone's gone!" She turned to chase the person, but he or she had long disappeared into the crowd.

Al, who was still dazed from the sudden death of Sophie, snapped up to Riza's exclaimation: "Let's not look for the stone. Shall we go back to Amestris now?"

"Not possible at this moment, Alphonse." Riza said grimly, watching the matching Xingess soldiers who were liaising with King Bradley's men by monitoring the incoming and outgoing people at the Xing main gate. She suddenly tensed at one incoming vehicle. Roy, Ed and Winry were sitting on it. Some soldiers talked in low voice and 2 of them marched off silently.

"They are not aware that they are being watched!" Riza said with a frown: "We can't meet them right now. Not with King Bradley still thinking we have the stone with us." She pulled Al into other corner as the two soldier passed by.

Al suddenly leaped out and knocked the soldiers unconscious. He pulled their uniforms off: "Sorry, Lt, I think we need to change our attire."

Riza smiled.

Ed was still dazed from the sudden news that he stood almost for a minute before Winry shook him back to reality: "What is it, Ed?"

"Sophie..." Ed said, still blank.

"You are being watched, Colonel." Riza's voice suddenly appeared by Roy's ear, followed by a piece of paper being squeezed into his hand which was hanging outside the window. He looked up to see a Xingness soldier walking away.

He read the paper: "Meet us in the 2nd lane on your left."

"I need to look for a washroom, wait for me, Fullmetal." Roy said and wandered off in circles. Until he was sure that there was no stalker, he ducked into the 2nd lane on the left to see Riza and Al leaning against the wall in Xingness soldier uniforms.

"I'm glad you are fine, first Lt." Roy smiled.

Riza sighed deeply: "Sophie is dead."

"I think Fullmetal knows about it now, judging the way he seemed dazed when he was asking for information from a local." Roy said in low voice.

"Nii-san is here?" Al asked.

"Fullmetal's worried for you." Roy said: "What happened?"

"I was kidnapped by Archer. He is a homunculus. He took me to his 'Father' and I was taken here until Yao Ling took me out of the palace. Then, I ran into the ex Fuhrer as well as Lt and Sophie..." Al's voice trailed off at the name of Sophie: "We fought and I guess you should know what happen after that, but the Philosopher's stone has been stolen by someone else."

Riza glanced at Roy questioningly.

"I think we better get out of here first." Roy said, looking at Al: "Especially you."

"I don't think it's possible now." The voice of Dante said as she walked out into the light, glazing at them with relaxed smile: "As you see, you are completely surrounded." There were a number of Xingness soldiers standing besides her as well as King Bradley.

"I was too careless." Roy said with a frown, putting on his gloves and taking out his pistol.  
_

On the dark street, a girl revealed her face as Ran Fan as she took out the Philosopher's stone from her pocket. She did not notice Triffany and Godoa following her.

"RAN FAN!" Ed suddenly called from afar: "Have you seen Al anywhere?" He suddenly caught sight of the stone in Ran Fan's hands.

"It's for an important matter!" Ran Fan said uneasily and tried to run away, but Triffany and Godoa blocked her path.

Ed growled and was about to assist Ran Fan when Winry pointed out at a direction. There was a fire, followed by noise of fighting.

"Damnit," Ed growled as he noticed the three figures had vanished during his diversion of attention and ran towards the commotion. Winry ran with him.

"You wait here, Winry, it's dangerous there!" Ed shouted back and ran off without her. He almost jumped when a whirlwind rose in the air sweeping several soldiers into the sky, followed by mixtures of screams, mixed with the familiar yelp of Al in pain.

"ALLLLL!" Ed screamed and ran just in time to see Al being pulled with his arms behind his back in the firm grip of King Bradley. Ed growled and transmuted his automail arm into sword and attacked King Bradley.

Roy flicked his flame at King Bradley who was forced to release Al. He gasped in shock as he spotted some soldiers released gun powders at the flame alchemist. Riza yelled something inaudible as she rushed to Roy's side.

At the other side, Scar, Lust and Chang Mei looked up to see tongues of fire, mixed with shouts and wind in the other side of the street and ran against the running people to see what was going on.

Along the way, Scar noticed more soldiers cordoning the area to block further people from entering the place. "Let's wait nearby and watch instead." He said. Lust nodded.

"XIAO MEI!" screamed Chang Mei tearfully as her little panda was lost in the commotion. "Xiao Mei's gone!"

"We can always look for her later." Lust said firmly, dragging the unwilling girl.

Just then, there was a big explosion and several buildings collapsed. _

Envy returned to Sloth's side after checking certain matters with some soldiers to find him lying dead on the ground, thoroughly burnt and his philosopher's stone within himself missing. As expected, Archer who had been tied up had escaped during Envy's absense.

"Wow, this is the craziest homunculus I've ever seen." Envy said, staring at Sloth's decomposing corpse, realising that Frank Archer had attacked Sloth while the latter was having a nap the moment Envy left his side. _

Chang Mei's little panda-Xiao Mei was panicking as people around it ran around in fear upon the first sign of battle from afar.

"Is it a war?" Some bewildered people were asking others as they hurried from the chaotic zone.

"Are you lost, little fellow?" A man asked the little panda as he picked it up gently in his large hand. The man had blond short hair and was wearing tattered Amestris military uniform.

"Lt Havoc! We have all thought you were dead!" came Winry's surprised voice from behind as she ran up to him.

Lt Havoc turned to look at her and smiled: "You have grown up so much, Winry, I can hardly recognised you. Were you saying this body belongs to a man named Lt Havoc?"

Winry's eyes widened with fear: "Who are you?"

"I'm Edward and Alphonse's father, Light Hohenheim. I think Dante has transferred my soul into the body of Havoc during the last fight." The man said, scratching his chin.  
_

**TBC **

AU: Realised I had drafted the subsequent chapters a few years ago after all.. So I'm posting again to complete this fanfic on this account...


	11. Battle

**FMA Fanfic: The Lost Heaven (Chap 11)**

Disclaimer: I, of course, do not own any character or plot in FMA, or Al will turn into everyone s uke!  
Characters appearance: Al, Ed, Roy, Riza, Scar, Lust, Chang Mei, Hohenheim, Winry, King Bradley, Yao Ling, Ran Fan, Chang Mei, Camellia, Triffany, Godoa, Leonardo Warning: Characters' deaths, Frank Archer's language, violence

**Chapter 11: Battle**

It was Year 1942, Germany

Ed panted as he cowered over the bleeding body of Al in the boat. The beams of light from the Nazi's boat were still towering over the sea, searching for them. He grinded his teeth and looked down at the sweating face of his younger brother.

"You'll be fine, Al, I won't let you die." Ed whispered sternly. Very quietly, he allowed the boat to drift to a bank and half-supported his unconscious brother to the long grass where they waited till the Nazi soldiers gave up the search and left.

Struggling, Ed carried his taller younger brother to a nearby building and attempted to extract the bullet from Al's wound before bandaging it up. Al's face was still pale from loss of blood. Ed's lips were almost drawing blood as he bit into them when he dragged Al into a clinic where he forced the doctor there to transfer some of his blood to Al.

Ed heaved a sigh of relief. Al's life was secured.

Ed suddenly woke up in a sea of darkness. Warm liquid dripped onto his face. As his vision grew accustomed to the dark, his eyes stared into the unconscious face of the 13-year-old Al on top of him, their lips almost touching. He could taste the copper taste of blood that flowed down from the boy's forehead onto his. They were trapped beneath the debris of a collapsed building.

"Al..." Ed whispered. There was no response. "AL!"

Al opened his eyes. There was light everywhere, almost blinding him.

"Nii-san?" Al called uncertainly. The last thing he remembered was seeing balls of fire flying down towards Ed and he had hurled himself to protect him. The next moment, he landed in the strange place.

"Didn't I tell you to take your own sweet time before coming back here?" came 'Truth's disappointed voice.

"Am I back to the gate?" Al asked.

"Yes and no, because you are not completely dead yet." 'Truth' said: "Look, I've just sent your friend-Sophie and Zerugiu back to their dimension. I don't know what you are up to, but can you please don't send people back to their own world that fast? You are spoiling my fun!"

"Dimension? What do you mean?" Al exclaimed.

'Truth' said: "Well, I guess you must be wondering why you have no memory of some people when you meet them back then, right?" Al nodded. "The reason why you have no collection of them at all is because they do not exist in your dimension at all. Imagine the universe is full of different worlds, which are similar to yours. The same people in each dimension may have same soul, appearance and bodies, but they have different memories owing to different encounters and events.

"I don't get you, 'Truth'." Al said, utterly confused.

"Alright, in short, people from different dimension, whether dead or alive, have fused together after the gates shattered from you and your brother's destruction. While other people s mind captured the change, yours remain in whatever happens within your dimension which was why you could not remember people from other dimension... I don't care you understand me or not, but that's the situation now." Just then, Al noticed Truth s form became fainter and fainter .

"Wait, I ve something else to ask!" Al called out. A flash of a strange transmutation circle flashed in his eyes before he was hurled like a ball into darkness

"Al, Al!" Al could hear Ed calling him, his voice was almost crying: "Answer me! Can you hear me? Please wake up, I don't want to lose you again!" Al felt warm liquid falling onto his face and opened his eyes to see a tearful Ed besides the debris in an isolated lane under the moonlight. Ed had transmuted the debris away so that he could carry his younger brother out of the mess and bandaged the wounds.

"Hi, nii-san." Al smiled weakly: "I'm back from the gate. Where are the rest of the people? Where are Colonel Mustang and Lt Riza?"

"I don't know we were almost alone when I dragged you out of the mess." Ed said: "Listen, can you please not going around risking your neck for me? You are no longer an armor like last time."

Gomen, I ve made you worried. Al whispered apologetically.

By the way, what have you told Winry about me not getting married in my entire life when we were on the other side of the gate? Ed glared: Armony and Sophie are now looking . His voice trailed off, remembering that Sophie was already died.

Sophie wanted me to tell you that she ll never forget the time she had spent with you and she wished you and Winry well together. Al said softly. He suddenly noticed Ed looking stiffly ahead. Al imitated him.

Under the moonlight, a tall figure in Amestris military uniform stood among the ruins. Red lights emitted eerily from his eyes. "Hi, kids," A cold familiar voice breathed excitedly: "Looks like we meet again."

"Frank Archer, what are you doing here?" Ed growled, leaping between Al and Archer. Like a flash of lightning, Archer flashed beyond Ed and held Al into his strong arms.

"Too slow, Fullmetal, you need more to become stronger than me." smirked Archer as he sniffed Al's delicate neck: "Mmm, I miss this smell, I'm going to rape you over and over again, then I'll rape your corpse.. Heeheehee..."

"Let Al go!" Ed roared angrily.

"And before that, I shall kill your elder brother first." Archer added. He extended his lance at Ed's throat before Al could blink his eyes. Ed was just in time to dodge the first attack, but his leg was stabbed in the second attack.

"Nii-san!" Al cried in fear, struggling in Archer's hold: "Leave me! I'll be fine!" Unfortunately, his arm and leg were fractured and his vision was blurry due to excessive loss of blood.

"Is that true, Al..." Ed growled: "...that this bastard has violated you before?"

"Of course, it's perfectly true," smiled Archer: "You should have hear his sweet beautiful cries as I took him..."

"YOU SICK BASTARD! I should have killed you the first time when you returned from your revival!" screamed Ed as he clapped his hands to transmute wires at Archer who dodged as easily as a cat to a snail.

"Be careful, you might hurt your precious younger brother." Archer leered darkly and with Al secured tightly in his arms, he flashed into an abandoned building. Ed ran after the man.

"You can't win me, because I have 2 Philosopher's stones with me right now!" Archer laughed menacingly.

"Nii-san, he will not hurt me under 'Father's order!" Al cried as Ed ran, transmuting things along the way to stall Archer's path: "DON'T BE STUPID!"

"Now, who's the stupid and arrogant one? Are you trying to make me die with guilt for not able to save my younger brother? Are you trying to make me unable to face Kaa-san after death?" shouted Ed: "I'VE PROMISED KAA-SAN THAT I'LL PROTECT YOU!"

Archer opened his mouth to say something, but Al banged his head against his, causing him to stagger a while and took the opportunity to pull himself out of the man's grip. Archer growled and punched Al on his stomach against the wall.

"Don't think I'm still receiving instruction from that old fool! I'm on my own now, so I'm going to do anything as I please with you!"

Ed took the chance of his missed concentration on him and stabbed him in his throat. He felt something stabbed into his waist.

"NII-SAN!" Al screamed and forcing himself to ignore the pain in his arm, he clapped his hands and hit Archer.

Archer's eyes went blank for a moment before regaining himself: "Good try, Soul Alchemist, you were trying to shatter my soul away? Too bad, because I can die many times!" He wrapped his fingers round Al's neck: "Don't force me to cripple your limbs, little boy. I want to feel your struggle when I take you later."

Al choked and clapped his hands only to be pulled against a pillar where the man started tying his hands behind his back. Archer looked back to see Ed struggling on his feet.

"Let...Al...go!" Ed grinded as he moved slowly back to his feet.

"Maybe I should tie you up so that you can enjoy my show, Fullmetal." Archer grinned darkly and without seeing how his body moved, Ed was punched in his stomach and drove to another pillar where he was bound. Sniggering, Archer returned to Al's side and pulled the boy s face to his. Archer licked his lips and tagged at Al s collar.

"I can't watch this any longer, Mr Military man." A feminine voice said as Lust leaped through the window: "Goodness, you are more incredible than me as a Homuculus!"

"A previous homunculus? I've never heard of such term." Archer said coldly.

Lust ignored him and looked at Ed: "Are you still alive, little boy?"

"Can you please get Al out of here?" Ed asked with pleading eyes.

"Nii-san, you should get out of here first, you're hurt!" Al protested, struggling in his bound.

"Shut up, Al!" snapped Ed and turned to Lust, but she was already fighting with Archer.

She grimaced as a lance flew into her shoulder and praised: "Not too bad, you're much much better than me when I was a homunculus, but..." A hand had clasped on the back of Archer's head, igniting it into bloody mess.

Archer recovered his head and saw Scar standing side by side with Lust: "Is that the reason why you rather turn into a useless human being than being a powerful homunculus, woman?"

"You can say so." Lust tilted her head and without warning, she and Scar resumed their attacks on Archer.

Ed stared at the battling trio and suddenly felt his bounds loosened.

"Shh.., let's get out of here." Chang Mei hissed. Al was leaning against the wall for support, biting his lips to stop himself from whimpering. Silently, Al torn a piece of his shirt to bandage Ed's wound on his waist. Together with Chang Mei, Ed supported the limping Al out of the room.

Suddenly, they heard a sharp gasp of pain and turned to see Lust collapsing onto the ground in a pool of blood seeping from her chest and throat.

"Oops," Archer said softly: "I think I was a little bit too harsh on the lady. What will you do with your dead beloved, Scar?"

"Lust-san!" Chang Mei cried and tried to turn back.

"Don't come here. Get out of this place. I can handle this man!" shouted Scar who was already covered with wounds. Archer grinned and tried to dodge Scar's hand again. Suddenly, he found his legs immobile. He looked down to see the bleeding face of Lust grinning up at him, grabbing his ankles.

"Don't ever underestimate a human being, Homunculus." Lust snarled.

Archer growled and stabbed the woman several times with his lances, but Scar had found his chance. Grabbing Archer by his neck, Scar thrust his other hand into the man's chest to extract his Philosopher's Stone. He turned to the standing teenagers and snared: "I say, GET OUT!"

With Al's arm over his shoulder, Ed pulled Chang Mei and ran out of the building before it collapsed.

In Archer s mind eyes flashed the time when Father inserted the Philosopher s stone with soul of sin Lust into his body in the subway tunnel. Archer had been able to fight the other soul to gain complete control over his own body.

I I will NOT LOSE TO FATE! Archer screamed as Scar intensified his combustion alchemy with the stone. Sparks of fire rose within Archer s body and burst out like angry fire dragons.

Flame rose through the roof, bringing the already corroding building down to earth. Staring into the clear blue sky through the gaps of the debris, Scar thought he could hear Lust's voice lingering in the air...We are together again, Scar... I have never feel more complete with you as a woman... and as a human being...

Same for me... Scar could feel himself smile as he looked into Lust's unconscious face as he laid beneath the burning beams with the rotting corpse of Frank Archer.

He closed his eyes as the ruins of the building exploded. In a surge of moment, he could feel Lust's hand holding onto his, soaring into the sky.

"SCAR-SAN!" Chang Mei screamed, lunging at the burning building. Al pulled her back with his uninjured hand and she cried in his shoulder.

"Scar-san... Lust-san..." wailed Chang Mei as she tagged besides the Elric brothers. Al sighed and petted her gently on her shoulder. Her tears fell even more.

"What should we do, nii-san? Do you have any idea where Colonel Roy and the rest are?" Al asked as Chang Mei exploded into more tears in his shoulder.

Ed jabbed his head up: "Winry! I've forgotten about her!"

"What? Winry's here too?" exclaimed Al in shock.

"We better look for her before anything happens..." Ed scowled frustrated: "How could I forget about her? It's all Frank Archer's fault.."

Chang Mei wailed even louder, remembering how protective Scar had been to her like an elder brother and her missing panda-Xiao Mei.

"You seem in distress, children." A voice said. Al looked up and his round eyes widened in shock. It was 'Father'. Behind him stood monster Envy. Ed s grip on Al s arm tightened. Al could feel his elder brother tensed with apprehension.  
_

Roy staggered out of the few woods that had fallen onto him and looked around. He recalled that Riza had dragged him to some corners before everything turned black. Now where was Riza?

"First Lt!" Roy yelled and quickly checked himself, scolding himself inwardly for showing his identity on an enemy's land by shouting in the public. But the damage was already done.

"Is that you, Colonel Mustang?" came the familiar voice of King Bradley as he stood out from other area. Apparently, the explosion did not affect him at all: "Are you looking for someone? Maybe I can help you out... once you are dead." He drew out his sword.

Roy scowled inwardly. Now this was trouble.

Riza scrambled her way out of the debris and made her way silently to a building for support. Her arm was bleeding badly when it rubbed against a fallen beam. She heard the sound of fighting from afar, followed by fire rising in the air.

'Colonel!' thought Riza in panic and made her way there. From her hiding place, she saw another lady walking towards the fighting scene.

Blood seeped through Roy's wounds as he tried to dodge the fast moving body of King Bradley. However, no matter how many times he burnt the ex-Fuhrer, the man never failed to revive immediately.

"I regret to inform that you are completely no match for me, Colonel Roy Mustang." King Bradley said as he moved in with his sword to make his final kill.

Suddenly, a bullet shot into his head. King Bradley turned to see Dante moving towards him.

"Are you the one who did the shooting?" asked King Bradley warily, knowing that Dante had the long intention to betray 'Father' anytime.

"No, King Bradley, I'm here to stand by, in case you cannot handle Roy Mustang." Dante said smoothly: "Watch out, he is escaping."

Behind a building, Riza stood panting with her still smoking rifle by her side.

Roy growled inwardly, knowing that even if he could get rid of King Bradley, he would be thoroughly wounded to fight the calm looking woman whom he had witnessed possessed strong alchemy ability.

'I'll wait till King Bradley kills Roy Mustang, then I'll get in and finish him off.' Dante thought with a smile.

"Were you the one who lured the soldiers into throwing gun powder at me to create the explosion?" questioned Roy.

"So what if I did? Isn't it faster to get rid of you people in this way?" Dante said.

Just then, there was a wind of armors sweeping across the path between King Bradley and Roy Mustang. Dante turned to see the figure of Lt Havoc walking towards Roy with Winry (and Xiao Mei on her shoulder) following close behind.

"Lt Havoc?" gasped Riza in surprise from her hiding place, wondering when her colleague learnt such powerful alchemy.

"Light Hohenheim." Dante said emotionlessly: "So you've finally agree to reveal yourself."

"Hohenheim?" exclaimed Roy in surprise, looking from Havoc to Dante and back again.

"It's true," Winry said solemnly from behind: "Havoc-san is dead." Xiao Mei shivered slightly at the menacing view of Dante at the other direction as the woman's face darkened.

A gust of stony monsters merged from the ground and Dante said: "Are you against me, Hohenheim? After all the years we have been together?"

"I'm sorry, Dante, in all my life, I only love Trisha." Hohenheim admitted: I have never love you before, Dante."

Dante roared and sent her monsters at Hohenheim and Roy. Riza gasped and shoot Dante. Dante's eyes hardened and she sent the bullets back, piercing into Riza's body, barely missing her chest.

Roy roared and shot flames at her, but was interfered by King Bradley's sword. Knowing that her hiding place was exposed, Riza moved swiftly despite her wounds and shot King Bradley at vital points so that he could lose his concentration while he was fighting with Roy. King Bradley suddenly vanished before another Roy's attack and appeared behind Riza's back.

"Shall I send her to the underworld first, Flame Alchemist?" smiled King Bradley as he penetrated his sword into Riza's chest. Riza dodged just in time, but her shoulder was cut deeply. King Bradley dived for another attack and paused to see a blade through his shoulder, cutting one of his arm away, followed by flame burning through his wounds, setting his entire self into flame.

"Haven't you forgotten, Roy Mustang, that I can revive many times?" King Bradley said coldly and was stunned to see in the hand of Roy Mustang, held the Philosopher's stone that was injected by 'Father' into his arm many years ago. I ll not see you off, King Bradley. Roy said emotionlessly as the stunned King Bradley rotted and decomposed back to earth. Without more ado, Roy ran to help Riza up to stop her bleeding.

"Winry, leave this place with Colonel Mustang and Lt Riza, I'll hold her off." Hohenheim told Winry who was already running to assist Roy in his attending to Riza's wounds.

"First Lt, if we can make this through alive, will you marry me?" Roy suddenly asked. Riza blushed slightly: "Are you serious this time, Colonel?"

Winry looked elsewhere uneasily. Riza nodded. Together with Roy, they ran off.

The affect district of Xing was in total ruins of fallen concrete and flames. Everywhere, they saw terrified people pulling out their injured or dead friends or relatives from the debris. Winry could feel many threw accusing looks at them for being the main cause of the damage.

"Let s hurry before they start attacking us." Riza whispered under her breath: "To them, we are unwanted foreign intruders." Suddenly, Xiao Mei leaped down from Winry's shoulder and ran towards some fallen concrete. It tried to dig heaps of rocks frantically.

"What is it, Xiao Mei? Is Chang Mei buried under the concrete?" Winry asked anxiously and started imitating Xiao Mei s act.

"Stand back." Roy said as he clapped and hit the ground. The rocks fell apart. Winry's jaws fell. Lying on the ground unconscious were Edward Elric and Chang Mei.

"ED!" Winry screamed and ran to pull him into her arms.

"Al... return Al back to me..." Ed was muttering weakly. He was still breathing, but he was bleeding profusely. He suddenly jerked awaked and his hand outstretched upwards: "AL!"

"What happened, Ed?" Winry asked.

"Damnit, that bastard old man," Ed ran his bleeding fingers over his messy hair as he recalled the event few moments ago as vividly as though it was only a minute ago.

With a stamp of feet, Father had deactivated Al and Ed s ability s to perform alchemy. With a sweep of his leathery tail, Envy sent Al and Chang Mei smashing into the fallen wall like a couple of rag dolls. With the two teenagers unconscious, Ed tried to take on Envy without his alchemy by himself, but the homunculus had knocked some hanging ceilings over him and Chang Mei with his tail. Ed remembered seeing Father picking the unconscious Al in his arms before everything turned black ..

"The little girl is still alive." Riza interrupted Ed s thought as she carried Chang Mei in her arms. Xiao Mei was clinging onto Chang Mei nervously, peeping into the girl s unconscious face.

Roy stood up abruptly. A young Xingness lady was running up to them.

They are probably attacked by a man whom the Homunculi addressed as Father . "I can bring you to him .. on a condition .." The lady said, panting as she looked over her back.

"Who are you? And what's your condition of helping us?" Roy asked suspiciously.

"She's Ran Fan, she s a friend." Winry said quickly.

"I have the Philosopher's stone and that Father needs it for his blood sacrifice ritual." Ran Fan said hastily: "I need you to help me get rid of these three people." She turned towards the three approaching figures of Triffany, Godoa and Leonardo who were after the stone within Ran Fan's hands.

"No problem." Roy said coolly as he rearranged his gloves with transmutation circle. Ed struggled back to his feet shaking and pushed Winry's arms away.

"Ed, don t force yourself!" Winry cried anxiously: "You are still hurt!"

"Let's end these nonsense soonest possible. Al is waiting for me."

Ran Fan had something else on her mind. _That Father man seems formidable to insert souls into living human's bodies. If I threaten him with this Philosopher s stone, I can stand a chance to force him to eject the other soul from Young Master's body so that he can regain his true self._

Before her, Flame Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist clapped their hands and the ground rose and fell like waves to bury the three pursuers.

When the dust subsided, Roy noticed Camellia watching nearby. "Are you going to attack us too?"

"No, you people can continue ahead. I'll come after you people later once you all perish with 'Father' and the rest." Camellia chuckled darkly.

Roy glared and with the rest of the people, they headed towards the palace of Xing.  
_

**TBC _**


	12. Rebirth

**FMA Fanfic: The Lost Heaven (Chap 12/Final)**

Disclaimer: I do not own any character in FMA or Alphonse Elric would turn into uke for every other character in FMA. So, please don't sue me!

Characters involved: Al, Ed, 'Father', 'Truth', Roy, Riza, Winry, Chang Mei, Ran Fan, Greed!Yao Ling, Pride!Xing Emperor, Envy, Wrath, Izumi

**Chapter 12/Final: Rebirth**

Ed, Roy, Riza who was carrying Chang Mei and Xiao Mei on her back, Ran Fan and Winry reached the main gate of the palace. By then, Chang Mei had regained her conscious and was asking for whereabouts of Alphonse which Winry told her in short sentences. Chang Mei was horror-struck. Being living in the palace since birth, Chang Mei and Ran Fan were able to lead the rest to an unguarded area where they could sneak in.

"Colonel, you have been giving me enough help, I can save Al by myself." Ed said gruffly.

"What are you talking about, Fullmetal? We were in this together and we can t leave you kids to get into dangers!" Roy exclaimed in low voice as he shifted through the dark tunnel that led into the subway of the building: "Besides, I still owe Alphonse some favors."

Riza smiled: "Your brother will be safe."

"Winry..." Ed started.

"Don't talk me out of this, I don t want to wait for you guys anymore. " Winry cut across before he could complete his words.

"But I might not be able to protect you along the way.."

"Shhh, someone might hear us." Ran Fan hushed.

"I don't understand, wouldn't you be going against the Yao Clan's will?" Chang Mei asked suspiciously.

"I just want to save Young Master's soul and that's matter." Ran Fan said: "Enough words, we're going to reach the ground level soon." Silently, they walked through the underground subway and climbed through a ladder that led to the corridor of Xing palace.

Along the way, the soldiers and generals were no match for Ed, Roy and Chang Mei s alchemy. With support from Riza's shooting skill and Ran Fan's martial arts skill, they processed quickly through the palace.

Until they were confronted by Envy and an unfamiliar man in royal attire who was followed by several Xingness generals.

"That is outrageous, Ran Fan." The noble looking man said: "Do you know the punishment of assisting foreign intruders into our palace?"

"That is the current Pride or the former Xing emperor." Chang Mei whispered under her breath.  
_

Light intruded into his eyes as Al fluttered his eyes opened. High ceiling with Xingness arts engraved on it came into his sight. Al shifted his limbs uneasily and found his fractured arm and leg mended as good as new.

"How's your rest, Alphonse?" asked Father s voice. Al quickly jerked up and found himself lying on the ground of a large hall in the center of a transmutation circle. The only fortunate thing was, Al was not tied up. Father was standing, looking at the large window openings overseeing the entire nation of Xing. Al noticed there was a staircase leading out of the hall at a corner.

"You may decide whether you wish to run after I show you something, Alphonse." Father turned to face Al and smiled benignly. His hand motioned Al to walk over to his side. Al glared at him and with his eyes at the man; he walked carefully to the window openings.

Al's jaws fell. Below the tower, the entire country was enveloped within a giant transmutation circle just like the time when Scar did the same to the city of Lior years ago.

"I'm sure you know what it means." Father said. It was not a demand, but a threat. Al stared back at him, his eyes widened with disbelief.

"You can't do this. You are eliminating this entire country!" Al yelled.

"Well?" Father glanced back at him calmly and waited for Al s answer.

"You have no Philosopher's stone right now, so there's nothing I can do." Al muttered, hoping to find a loophole to get out of the trouble.

"I have the stone Archer had extracted from Sloth hours ago from the burning site." Father said, holding out the stone to Al: "I do not wish to wait any longer."

Al looked back at the transmutation circle and then at the stone.

Think about your elder brother and your friends who are within this country. They are still alive when I took you here.

Al looked up at the man who resembled so much of his own father with lost expression. Who would think that this man would think up of something so malicious? The man smiled gently.  
_

The main hall was in utter ruins as Pride and Envy fought against Ed, Roy, Riza, Chang Mei and Ran Fan.

"You people go first, we ll deal with them!" Roy yelled to Chang Mei, Ran Fan and Ed.

"That's not possible," Envy grinned: "You see, there'll be only one alchemist and one Lt ranked soldier here." Behind them, merged countless chimeras alongside with Pride and Envy.

"They have us!" A feminine voice called as the ground rose to slap Envy onto the ground. The dust subsided to show Armstrong, Cony, Izumi and Wrath. Izumi smiled at Ed: "We came here once Armony told us what happened back there. Hope we're not too late."

"Sorry, we re leaving our posts, Colonel." Armstrong told Roy.

"Are we too late?" asked Cony, looking at the opponents around them: "We saw chaos and ruins everywhere the moment we stepped foot into this country."

"Is Al still alive?" Wrath asked, looking around the hall anxiously for the other boy. He had grown rather close to Al ever since Ed first went over to the other side of the Gate of Transmutation.

"Al is in the hands of someone very difficult, but I'm going to save him now. Arigato, Sensei, we'll make our move first!" Ed called and ran off with Winry, Ran Fan and Chang Mei.

"Stay safe!" Izumi and Riza yelled to them as they assisted Armstrong, Cony, Roy and Wrath fighting Envy and Pride.

"That man probably has Alphonse up in the main tower of the palace." Ran Fan said thoughtfully as they ran. She looked at the Philosopher's Stone in her hand: "But without this stone, he ll not be able to do a thing ."

"Is that so, Ran Fan?" A cold familiar voice of Greed!Yao Ling said from the top of a staircase to the tower.

"Ling!" called Ed.

"That's Greed to you." Greed!Yao Ling said looking at Ran Fan: "To think that the person whom I entrust most have actually betrayed me."

"I've no time to waste on you, I m going to get Young Master back RIGHT NOW!" yelled Ran Fan angrily. Digging into her pocket, she extracted the stone and tossed it to Ed.

"What?" Ed glared not understanding.

"I trust you." Ran Fan said: "You'll help me get the man to bring Young Master back, won't you?" She looked at Greed!Yao Ling: "In the meantime, I ll have to take him down and tie him up until Young Master gains his body back."

"Errr, let's have this idea." Ed said, tossing the stone back to Ran Fan: "You ll hold onto the stone and I'll bring Ling, I mean Greed down."

"I'll go and get Alphonse-sama out of there!" Chang Mei exclaimed and attempted to get past Greed!Yao Ling.

There was a yelp as the man moved swiftly and cut Chang Mei through her chest. Chang Mei gave an expression of disbelief as she fell through the staircase into the eternal darkness below. Winry shrieked and tried to hold onto her hand by the side of the staircase, but they missed by mere inches. Xiao Mei grasped and jumped after her mistress.

"I can't let you commit anymore sins, Young Master!" Ran Fan screamed and attacked Greed!Yao Ling with her sword.

Without any hesitation, Greed!Yao Ling stabbed her through her chest. Ran Fan still held the shock expression as she collapsed on the floor step in a pool of blood. The person whom she had wanted to protect She could feel her life dripping away ..

"RAN FAN!" Ed and Winry screamed as they attempted to stop him.

"Help me... To get Young Master back ., won't you?" Ran Fan stammered before she drifted into her eternal sleep.

"YOU BASTARD!" Ed roared as he pounced at the man. Winry pulled him back. Greed!Yao Ling was struggling with himself, holding onto his head.

"You . Killed her yyou beast .. Unforgiveable .!" Yao Ling growled and suddenly stabbed himself to pull out his own Philosopher's stone and let it drop into the darkness below him: "What's the use of this stone if the one I treasure most is dead?"

"That's my body now, Prince of Xing, or have you forgotten the first time when we first communicate in this body?" sniggered Greed within him.

"I'll not let you take over me this time, I'll rather perish with you!" bellowed Yao Ling.

"LING!" Ed cried out, but Yao Ling gave him last friendly grin. Holding Ran Fan in his arms, he let himself fall through the hollows in the middle of the spiral staircase. From above, Ed could hear Yao Ling's last lingering words in the air...

**_Goodbye, my Amestris friend ... _**

Tears streamed down Ed's eyes as he and Winry made their way into the great tower.  
_

Al was in daze when he took the Philosopher's Stone from 'Father' and stepped into the transmutation circle. Under the watchful eyes of 'Father', he clapped his hands and hit the ground. The transmutation circle glowed.

Afar, Al thought he could hear Ed calling his name.

_**Nii-san..., are you coming for me?**_

Ed and Winry reached the top of the tower just in time to see Al enveloped within the light of transmutation circle. Transmutation circles appeared around Al as he transmuted himself with the Philosopher s Stone.

Flashes of memories appeared before Ed eyes.

Al was a few months old and he was learning how to walk ..

Winry, Ed and Al were laughing when they were playing games outside their house .

Al's tears as he glanced at their mother s grave

Al's screams when he was dragged into the Gate of Transmutation during their attempt to revive their mother ..

Every bit of Al s joy and sorrow throughout their journey in search of the Philosopher s Stone and their life in the other side of the Gate, whether as a suit of armor or as a human being .

"ALLLLL!" Ed screamed. He tried to touch the light, to reach his brother's body . He saw Al gasped and lifted his arm slightly as if considering grabbing his elder brother s hand, but thought better of it. He looked sadly at him and his lips seemed to mouth: "Arigato and gomene sai, nii-san.."

"No, I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU AGAIN! I'VE SAID I'LL PROTECT YOU!" bellowed Ed hoarsely. With unthinkable surge of strength, he leaped and his hands went through the beam of light as the form of Al began to vanish. To his astonishment, Ed found his fingers vanishing. As Ed yelled in shock, the effect spread to the rest of his body.

"ED!" He heard Winry screamed fearfully behind him as she tried desperately to reach for him. Before she could touch his fingers, Ed disappeared before her very eyes.

As the last of the outside hall as well as Ed and Winry vanished from his sight, Al felt floor began to fall away under his feet, hurling him into blinding brightness. He could feel Father stepping into the circle with him and abruptly, the man vanished from his side as brightness blinded his vision.

Gate of Transmutation, return us to where we belong. Al whispered almost to himself. Bright light radiated through his skin like a halo and it enveloped him.

Bright vertical beam shot from the transmutation circle into the sky, broke into the overcastting clouds and spread outwards.

Izumi and Wrath felt themselves vanishing as the light flooded them. Izumi smiled and held Wrath s hand as they disappeared together. Envy was about to deliver his blow on Armstrong before he disappeared into thin air. Roy was surprised to see that the sword of Pride failed to fall onto him and saw the man vanishing before his eyes.

Chimeras and attacking Xingness soldiers, like the vanishing soldiers were disappearing the moment the light swept into them. Wherever the light touched, people vanished randomly. Cony . Camellia . Leonardo Triffany . Godoa Corpses of Scar, Lust and Archer . Like illusions, the buildings of Xing swayed and vanished.

From the headquarter of Amestris, Hughes looked up into the sky: Look like you ve made it. Goodbye, Roy, my old friend. Like ice, his body dissolved within the flooding light. Armony was looking at the photos of the Elric brothers before she turned into nothing upon the touch of the light . Out in the city of Amestris, buildings reverted back to normal and Drachma recovered from its supposed destruction.

Roy looked up into the clearing sky as many people around him fell back and vanished into dust. Out in the disappearing street, Dante attempted to reach the man in front of her.

"Why, Hohenheim , why did you forsake me for someone else? Doesn t my young appearance please you?"

"Dante, you still don t understand. I love Trisha not for her beauty, but for her heart. I'll never love you again, Dante, because you have lost what human beings initially have that is love for mankind..." Dante heard the man whispered before she felt herself vanished into thin air. Hohenheim gave his last sigh of relief as he felt himself floating out of Lt Havoc s body.

Lt Havoc cleared his vision to find himself standing in a deserted land and made his way to find Roy and Riza standing in daze at the abrupt change. Winry walked towards them, feeling lost and confused.

Ed and Al are gone . Tears streamed down from her eyes.

In a dimension, amidst the setting sun, Sophie looked up from the train platform to see the track where she last saw Ed, Armor!Al and Winry left on a departing train. She had a long strange dream a moment ago just after the train departed. It was a bittersweet dream.

"Will I be able to see them again?" thought Sophie gloomily. She touched her cheek and was surprised to see her fingers streaked with warm tears.

In the other dimension, Camellia was making her way from the city where she had her last battle against the Elric brothers for what she had done to Armony. She looked back at the snowy mountain, not understanding some strange memories that flashed through her mind, shrugged and continued her way again.

Across the other dimension, Cony was thrilled to start her job as Alchemist of Tuning with encouragement from Ed and Armor!Al as well as help from Major Armstrong after her search for her elder brother ended. She looked up into the clear blue skies, wondering what caused her to have strange memories of certain events crossing her mind in a moment of time.

_**It was Year 2008. Germany, Berlin.**_

The street was bustling with activities as a black hair lady-Izumi was taking her little boy-Wrath out to the market place buying daily groceries. At the other end of the road, a man with tanned skin-Scar was looking bored with his black hair girlfriend-Lust as officer Hughes boosted about his cute daughter for the 30th times outside the police station. Outside a shop, officer Archer was being reprimanded by his superior for trying to intimidate a shopkeeper s daughter-Armony into giving him protection money.

In a hospital ward, 1-year-old Ed was called to his parents-Trisha and Hohenheim's side to see his newborn younger brother-Al. The baby had been crying ever since he was extracted from his mother s womb. Ed moved closer to the baby and placed his little finger to the baby s tiny hand. Baby Al grasped it tightly and broke into his first smile.

"I think Al likes you, Ed." Trisha smiled: "He s your younger brother, you ll protect him, won't you?" Little Ed smiled and nodded, returning his gaze to his younger brother.

In the gate, 'Truth' looked back at the repaired Gate of Transmutation and sighed in disappointment.

"That's too much, it's barely a month when that little boy returned to his own world and now everything is back to normal again. He is not following my advice at all! Looks like my boring time is back again."

He recalled 'Father's question about his real identity ..

"It's you again, old boy, what do you want to know?" Truth had asked when Father appeared before him.

"Who am I?" Father asked: "Why am I so different from normal people?"

"Oh, if you say so." Truth said and with a wave of his hand, floods of memories and past zigzagged through Father s mind. He saw himself as the original frame of the Gate of Transmutation. With other identical piece of similar frame, they descended into the human world in the form of men.

Father's face relaxed into realisation, but his expression staggered as Truth added: "However, in my effort not to disrupt my fun, you ll forget whatever I ve said the moment you leave this place."

"But wait!" Father yelled anxiously: "Why did you abandon me, why do you not want me? WHY?" Father screamed, as he was hurled into other dimension through the gate.

Because, I need you to create more stories and funs in the human world." Grinned Truth as the final trace of Father vanished from his sight.

Out in other dimension, Father was sitting on his throne-like chair within the dark subway tunnel, with a hand tapping on an arm of his throne, trying to recall his earlier dream of meeting Truth. Remembering none, he sighed with a frown and called Envy to him.

"I want you to monitor the suitable candidates for my blood sacrifice ritual." Father said.

"Sure, no problem, Father!" grinned the shorter man.  
_

**The End _**

**_AU: Chapter 10 - 12 of this fanfic were actually done 5 years ago when the anime hasn't been remake based on manga completed plot.. I've completedly forgotten to post them onto ff net account due to the little reviews during that time. By now, my interest in FMA has already cooled and I'm more onto Naruto. But during that time, I did quite a number of FMA fanfic, but not as much as Inuyasha's..._**


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